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The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles 


3Bb  Hrtbur  z.  Pierson 


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THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES;  or,  The 
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THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOR  COMPANY, 

PUBLISHERS, 

33-37  East  Seventeenth  Street,  New  York. 


THE 


New  Acts  of  the  Apostles 

OR 

THE  MARVELS  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS 
a  Series  of  lectures 

UPON  THE 

FOUNDATION  OF  THE  “DUFF  MISSIONARY  LECTURESHIP” 

Delivered  in  Scotland,  in  February  and' March,  1893 


With  a  chromo-lithographic  Map  of  the  World,  and  Chart ,  which 
show  the  Prevailing  Religions  of  the  World ,  their  compara¬ 
tive  areas j  and  the  Progress  of  Evangelization * 


BY 

ARTHUR  T.  PIERSON 

Author  ol  the  "  Crisis  of  Missions,”  “  Miracles  of  Missions :  Many  Infallible 

Proofs,”  Etc. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

REV.  ANDREW  THOMSON,  D.D.,  F.R.S.E., 
Of  Edinburgh,  Scotland 


NEW  YORK 

THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOR  COMPANY 


33-37  East  Seventeenth  Street 
Union  Square,  North 


Copyright,  1894 

By  THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO, 


<2.6  C> 


s 


> 


t 


i 


t 

f 

<• 


Dedication. 

AS  A  GRATEFUL  OFFERING  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

THE  REV.  ALEXANDER  DUFF,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

WHO,  BEYOND  MOST  OTHER  MEN  OF  THIS  CENTURY  OF  MISSIONS, 
CONTRIBUTED  TO  THE  NEW  CHAPTERS  OF  ITS  MISSIONARY  HISTORY; 

AND  WHO, 

HAVING  “SERVED  HIS  OWN  GENERATION  BY  THE  WILL  OF  GOD,” 

“BEING  DEAD,  YET  SPEAKETH 
AND,  AS  AN  AFFECTIONATE  TRIBUTE  TO 

THE  REV.  ANDREW  THOMSON,  D.D.,  F.R.S.E., 

OF  EDINBURGH,  SCOTLAND, 

SENIOR  MEMBER  OF  THE  DIRECTORY  OF  THIS  LECTURESHIP, 
WHO,  HAVING  PASSED  FOUR  SCORE  YEARS,  AT  HIS  ADVANCED  AGE 

STILL  HOLDS  FORTH  THE  WORD  OF  LIFE, 

PREACHING  THE  MESSAGE  OF  THE  GOSPEL 
AND  URGING  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST  TO  GREATER  FIDELITY 
IN  HER  MISSION  TO  MANKIND, 

THIS  VOLUME  IS  INSCRIBED 
BY  THE  AUTHOR. 


I 

* 


INTRODUCTION. 


By  Rev.  Andrew  Thomson,  D.D.,  F.R.S.E., 

Edinburgh,  Scotland. 


THE  DUFF  MISSIONARY  LECTURESHIP. 

The  Duff  Missionary  Lectureship  was  founded 
by  William  Pirie  Duff,  Esq.,  son  of  the  Rev.  Alex¬ 
ander  Duff,  D.D.,  LL.D.  Dr.  Duff  was  a  man  dis¬ 
tinguished  alike  by  his  fine  genius,  his  glowing 
eloquence,  and  his  Christian  zeal — a  man  whose  name, 
familiar  as  a  household  word  in  many  parts  of  India 
at  the  present  day,  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  those 
great  missionaries  who  have  been  incalculable  blessings 
to  India  during  recent  generations.  When  Dr.  Duff 
died  on  the  twelfth  of  February,  1878,  leaving  his 
son,  his  heir,  Mr.  Duff  immediately  proceeded  to 
make  arrangements  for  the  establishment  and  endow¬ 
ment  of  a  quadrennial  course  of  lectures  on  some 
subject  “within  the  range  of  foreign  missions,  and 
cognate  subjects,”  as  a  suitable  memorial  of  the 
venerable  missionary.  He  was  prompted  to  this  at 
once  by  filial  piety  and  by  the  fact  that,  during  his  later 
years,  his  father  had  repeatedly  expressed  a  wish  that, 
as  a  means  of  perpetuating  his  influence,  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  bequest  which  he  would  leave  behind 
him,  should  be  consecrated  to  this  end. 

Trustees  were  appointed  to  arrange  and  admin¬ 
ister  the  trust,  and  these,  being  selected  from  the 
various  evangelical  denominations,  fitly  represented 


IN  TROD  UCTION, 


•  •  • 

Till 

Dr.  Duff’s  catholicity  of  spirit.  In  the  same  spirit, 
it  was  provided  that  the  lecturer  should  be  a  minis¬ 
ter,  professor,  or  godly  layman  of  any  evangelical 
church,  and  that  he  should  hold  the  lectureship  for 
four  years.  The  course  must  consist  of  not  fewer 
than  six  lectures  on  his  chosen  subject,  and  these 
must  be  delivered  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  dur¬ 
ing  the  second  year  of  his  tenure  of  the  lectureship, 
on  consecutive  Sabbath  evenings  in  the  months  of 
January  and  February,  and  re-delivered  at  such 
other  times  and  places  as  the  Trustees  might  direct. 

A  further  condition,  binding  on  the  lecturer,  was 
that  he  should  print  and  publish,  at  his  own  expense 
and  hazard,  at  least  one  hundred  copies  of  his  lectures, 
which  he  should  distribute  free  of  cost  among  the  Trus¬ 
tees  and  libraries  of  evangelical  churches  and  mission¬ 
ary  societies  at  home  and  abroad,  it  being  understood 
that  then  he  should  be  at  liberty  to  publish  as  many 
further  copies  as  he  might  see  fit,  and  the  profits  of 
which  should  belong  to  himself.  In  1880,  the  ar¬ 
rangements  had  been  completed,  and,  between  that 
year  and  the  present,  four  courses  of  lectures  have 
been  delivered,  showing  an  interesting  and  edifying 
variety  in  the  particular  branch  of  the  great  subject 
treated  by  the  lecturers,  but  each  and  all  making  a 
valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  of  Christian 
Missions. 


I. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Smith,  D.D.,  professor  of 
Evangelistic  Theology  in  the  Free  Church  of  Scot¬ 
land,  was  chosen  to  deliver  the  first  course  of  lec- 


IN  TROD  UCTION. 


IX 


tures  in  the  Duff  Missionary  Lectureship.  Being 
amply  satisfied  with  his  qualifications  in  other  re¬ 
spects,  it  was  felt  by  the  Trustees,  as  well  as  by  Dr. 
Duff’s  own  family,  that  there  would  be  a  seemly 
gracefulness  in  Dr.  Smith’s  being  appointed  to  lead 
the  van  of  lecturers,  arising  from  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  associated  with  Dr.  Duff  in  mission  work,  first 
in  Bengal  and  afterwards  in  Edinburgh,  for  the  long 
period  of  forty  years,  during  all  which  time  the 
friendship  of  the  two  men  had  been  most  intimate 
and  uninterrupted;  while,  to  quote  Dr.  Smith’s  own 
words,  ‘  ‘  he  shared  with  the  universal  Church  the 
sentiment  of  admiration  of  his  gifts  and  veneration 
of  his  graces.” 

Dr.  Smith’s  lectures  were  delivered  in  Edinburgh 
and  Glasgow  in  the  spring  ef  1880,  and  were  seven  in 
number.  His  selected  theme  was  Mediaeval  Missions, 
and  the  lectures  were  mainly  historical  and  biograph¬ 
ical.  But  when  we  consider  that  the  mediaeval  ages 
extended  over  a  period  of  a  thousand  years,  namely, 
from  the  fifth  century  to  the  Reformation,  and  that 
the  geographical  range  of  the  word  included  all 
Europe  and  even  large  portions  of  Asia  and  Africa, 
besides;  it  will  be  seen  that  the  history  of  Christian 
missions,  during  so  many  ages  and  over  so  vast  a 
space,  could  only  be  touched  by  the  lecturer  at  certain 
points,  and  many  of  them  not  referred  to  at  all. 
Nevertheless,  Dr.  Smith  has  done  much  within  his  nar¬ 
row  limits  to  increase  our  knowledge  of  those  periods 
in  which  attempts  were  made  to  Christianize  nations 
in  the  mass  and  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  and  when 
the  change  effected  was,  of  course,  little  more  than 
nominal.  In  almost  every  page,  we  can  discern 


X 


INTRODUCTION . 


evidence  that  the  lecturer  knew  a  great  deal  more 
on  the  subjects  treated  by  him  than  he  was  able  to 
compress  within  the  compass  of  seven  lectures.  He 
has  done  good  and  permanent  service  in  separating 
the  fabulous  from  the  real,  in  disentangling  knots 
that  had  perplexed  earlier  writers,  in  shedding  addi¬ 
tional  information  at  times  upon  the  struggles  of  light 
with  darkness,  and  in  giving  us  good  reasons  for  believ¬ 
ing  that,  even  in  the  midst  of  much  error  that  was 
mingled  on  some  occasions  in  what  was  written, 
there  was  sufficient  truth  to  lead  anxious  hearts 
to  Christ.  At  times  men  rise  before  us  in  the 
narrative  who  were  not  missionaries  merely,  but 
reformers,  influencing  extensive  regions  and  trans¬ 
mitting  their  light  to  succeeding  generations ;  and 
who,  like  St.  Patrick  in  Ireland  and  St.  Columba  in 
Scotland,  with  the  sea-girt  island  of  Iona  as  his  centre 
of  action,  sending  forth  his  evangelists  over  wide 
districts  of  Scotland  to  found  Culdee  settlements  and 
“  houses  of  Christ,”  did  almost  Apostolic  work,  and 
helped  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  glorious  Refor¬ 
mation  that  was  to  come. 


II. 

The  second  of  the  Duff  missionary  lecturers  was 
the  Rev. 'William  Fleming  Stevenson,  D.D.,  minis- 
ter  of  Rathgar  Presbyterian  Church,  Dublin,  and 
convener  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Committee  of  the 
Irish  Presbyterian  Church  and  Synod.  He  stood 
preeminent  as  a  preacher  among  the  ministers  of  his 
church,  and  his  position  as  convener  of  its  Foreign 
Mission  Committee  kept  his  mind  in  unbroken  con- 


IN  TR  OD  UC  TION. 


xi 


tact  with  missions  and  missionaries.  Everything 
was  looked  at  by  him  from  this  sacred  centre,  and 
was  coloured  by  it.  Nor  was  this  his  only  qualifica¬ 
tion;  for  before  the  period  of  his  being  engaged  to 
be  one  of  the  Duff  lecturers,  he  had  visited  nearly  all 
the  great  mission  fields  in  the  world,  especially  those 
scattered  over  India,  and  had  brought  back  with  him 
gathered  stores  of  knowledge  from  many  lands,  and 
a  heart  glowing  with  zeal  and  full  of  hope  for  the 
great  future  which  seemed  to  brighten  before  him, 
for  India  and  the  world. 

He  chose  as  the  title  of  his  course,  “  The  Dawn  of 
the  Modern  Mission,”  his  intention  being  to  restrict 
his  lectures  to  the  ages  which  immediately  followed 
the  Reformation,  when  the  Protestant  Churches  had 
not  yet  been  fired  by  the  missionary  spirit,  or  be¬ 
come  alive  to  the  all-embracing-  authority  of  the 
great  gospel  commission  which  included  in  it  every 
Christian  disciple:  “Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature.”  While  indi¬ 
vidual  men,  such  as  Ziegenbalg  and  Zinzendorf  and 
Schwartz,  as  if  they  had  been  born  before  their 
time,  did  noble  work  in  their  narrow  spheres,  and 
were  as  morning  stars  which  foretold  the  rising  of 
the  sun,  the  Churches  themselves  were  not  yet 
awake.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  Dr.  Stevenson  hoped 
to  have  time  and  opportunity  to  record  the  later 
history  of  foreign  missions,  when  the  Churches  should 
have  awakened  to  their  responsibility,  and  the  dawn 
of  the  mission  should  have  passed  into  the  day. 
But  this  was  not  to  be.  Even  his  course  of  lectures 
on  the  Dawn  of  the  Mission  was  never  completed. 
In  1884,  he  delivered  four  lectures  in  the  appointed 


IN  TR  OD  UC  T ION. 


xn 

places.  And  these,  in  so  far  as  he  had  strength  to 
give  them  a  full  revision,  were  worthy  of  himself, 
distinguished  by  vigorous  thought,  comprehensive¬ 
ness  of  view,  and  literary  beauty.  His  finely 
appreciative  and  living  portraits  of  the  great  pio¬ 
neers  of  missions  whom  we  have  named,  and  of 
many  others,  could  scarcely  have  been  surpassed  in 
their  rich  colouring  and  felicitous  touches  by  any 
writers  of  his  day.  But  death  came  with  its  sad  in¬ 
terdict,  the  effect  of  overwork,  and  “in  the  mid¬ 
time  of  his  days  ”  he  was  summoned  upward.  His 
accomplished  widow,  who  had  been  “of  one  heart 
and  soul  ”  with  him  in  all  his  cares  and  toils,  super¬ 
intended  the  publication  of  the  four  lectures  which 
he  had  delivered,  under  the  felicitous  title  which  he 
himself  had  chosen.  In  its  incomplete  form,  the  lit¬ 
tle  volume  is  like  a  broken  pillar,  but  the  pillar  is 
composed  of  the  finest  marble  and  it  is  chiselled 
with  a  master’s  hand. 


III. 

Sir  Monier  Monier  Williams,  the  distinguished  Orien¬ 
tal  scholar,  was  the  third  lecturer  appointed  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  Duff  Missionary  Lectureship.  His 
chosen  subject  was  Buddhism.  And  his  first  inten¬ 
tion  was  to  present  in  seven  lectures  a  scholarly 
sketch  of  true  Buddhism.  But  he  very  soon  per¬ 
ceived  that  in  order  to  do  justice  to  this  form  of  false 
religion,  which  was  the  faith  of  so  large  a  portion  of 
the  human  race,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  ex¬ 
hibit  it  in  connection  with  Brahmanism  and  Hindu¬ 
ism,  and  even  Jainism,  and  also  in  its  contrast  with 


INTRODUCTION .  xiii 

Christianity.  And  as  the  subject  expanded  in  his 
mind,  he  became  more  and  more  convinced  that  any 
endeavour  to  give  an  outline  of  the  whole  subject  of 
Buddhism  in  seven  lectures  would  be  “  like  the  effort 
of  a  foolish  man  trying  to  paint  a  panorama  of  Lon¬ 
don  on  a  sheet  of  note-paper.”  The  result  of  this 
conviction  was  that  the  seven  lectures  multiplied 
into  eighteen,  the  greater  number  of  these  far  ex¬ 
ceeding  in  length  the  dimension  of  ordinary  lectures 
which  might  be  delivered  in  an  hour.  The  literature 
of  Buddhism  has  immensely  gained  by  this  expan¬ 
sion  into  a  massive  volume  of  563  octavo  pages;  the 
parts  which  formed  the  lectures  which  were  de¬ 
livered  in  Edinburgh  in  1888  having  been  absorbed 
into  the  volume. 

In  a  modest  and  manly  preface,  the  learned  author 
claims  for  his  elaborate  treatise  an  individuality 
which  separates  it  from  those  which  have  been 
written  on  the  same  vast  subject  by  others, — an 
individuality  which,  as  he  says,  may  “commend  it 
to  thoughtful  students  of  Buddhism  as  helping  to 
clear  a  thorny  road,  and  to  introduce  some  order  and 
coherence  into  the  chaotic  confusion  of  Buddhistic 
ideas.”  The  unanimous  favourable  opinion  of  Ori¬ 
ental  scholars,  and  the  continuous  and  extensive  sale 
of  the  book  ever  since  its  publication,  far  more  than 
realized  the  hopes  of  the  accomplished  scholar ; 
while  its  value  and  authority  are  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  fact  that,  on  three  occasions,  Sir  Monier 
Monier  Williams  travelled  through  the  “  sacred 
land”  of  Buddhism,  and  carried  on  his  investiga¬ 
tions  personally  in  the  place  of  its  origin,  as  well  as 
in  Ceylon  and  on  the  borders  of  Thibet. 


INTRODUCTION . 


xiv 

IV. 

The  fourth  and  most  recent  Duff  Lecturer  was  the 
Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson, D.D.,  of  Philadelphia,  U.S.A., 
whose  name  is  pleasantly  familiar  to  the  Churches 
of  Christ  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  The  title  of  his 
lectures,  which  form  the  contents  of  the  present  vol¬ 
ume,  is,  “The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles;  or,  The 
Marvels  of  Modern  Missions/*  and  their  design  was  to 
compare  the  Christian  Church  in  the  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury  with  the  Church  in  the  first  century,  especially 
in  their  missionary  aspects,  and  to  bring  out  the  fea¬ 
tures  of  resemblance  and  of  contrast  between  them. 
They  were  addressed  in  the  early  months  of  1893, 
to  crowded  audiences,  not  only  in  Edinburgh  and 
Glasgow,  but  in  Aberdeen,  Dundee  and  St.  An¬ 
drew’s,  and  some  individual  lectures  were  also 
delivered  in  other  places,  as  in  Arbroath.  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  listening  to  some  of  them,  and 
knowing  as  I  did,  that  they  had  been  composed  by 
Dr.  Pierson  while  he  was  occupying  Mr.  Spurgeon’s 
place  in  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  in  London — a 
task  which  of  itself  would  have  exhausted  and  even 
overstrained  the  energies  of  most  men — I  was  aston¬ 
ished  at  their  power,  and  freshness,  and  varied  excel¬ 
lence.  They  were  as  new  and  fragrant  as  the  flowers 
of  spring.  His  vigour  and  originality  of  thought, 
his  extraordinary  knowledge  of  all  subjects  connected 
with  Christian  missions,  his  ingenuity  and  skill  in  the 
exposition  of  Scripture,  and  in  extracting  from  famil¬ 
iar  texts  new  and  unexpected  stores  of  instruction, 
his  inexhaustible  command  of  anecdotes  which 
helped  to  enrich  and  enliven  his  addresses,  his  power 


INTRODUCTION. 


xv 


of  making  external  nature  pay  tribute  to  spiritual 
instruction,  as  well  as  the  glowing  fervour  of  his  ap¬ 
peals — made  multitudes  listen  unwearied  for  hours  in 
hushed  silence.  I  trust  that  the  powerful  impres¬ 
sions  and  healthful  impulses,  produced  by  his  lectures 
when  spoken,  will  be  equalled  in  their  influence  and 
blessing  when  they  are  read,  and  I  am  sure  that  my 
honoured  and  beloved  friend  will  own  himself  to 
have  received  in  such  results  his  richest  reward. 


Edinburgh,  March,  1894. 


ANDREW  THOMSON. 


* 


AUTHOR’S  PREFACE. 


In  the  winter  of  1890,  while  wandering  among  the 
ruins  of  the  picturesque  abbey  at  Arbroath,  Scotland, 
my  eye  rested  upon  an  old  and  much  worn  headstone 
which  had  marked  the  grave  of  some  member  of 
that  large  family  whose  name  I  bear.  Along  the 
side  of  this  slab  could  be  distinctly  traced  the  letters, 
Pierson,  and  the  ancestral  “coat  of  arms”  graven 
upon  the  stone  had  not  been  quite  obliterated  by  the 
unsparing  hand  of  Time.  In  presence  of  such  a 
memorial  of  my  forefathers,  I  felt  like  a  lad  visiting 
the  old  homestead  where  his  ancestors  had  dwelt,  and 
ready,  in  a  filial  spirit,  to  render  to  dear  old  Scot¬ 
land  any  service  asked  of  me. 

One  might  well  hesitate  to  attempt  to  fill  the  ap¬ 
pointment  to  the  “  Duff  Missionary  Lectureship;”  to 
follow  such  men  as  the  heroic  missionary,  Rev. 
Thomas  Smith,  D.D.,  the  seraphic  advocate  of 
missions,  Rev.  William  Fleming  Stevenson,  D.D., 
and  the  accomplished  scholar,  Sir  Monier  Monier 
Williams;  but,  like  Franklin  at  the  Court  of  Ver¬ 
sailles,  I  may  say,  I  come,  “  not  to  succeed ,  but  only 
to  follow  ”  those  who  have  gone  before  me. 

To  Dr.  Alexander  Duff,  America  owes  a  debt 
which  can  never  be  paid;  and  the  visit  of  one  of  her 
sons  to  Scotland  upon  this  errand  was  but  a  slight 
acknowledgment  of  that  obligation,  a  tribute  of  the 
gratitude  of  my  fellow-countrymen  for  that  new  im- 

xvii 


XV111 


PREFA  CE. 


pulse  imparted  to  missions  by  that  eloquent  advo¬ 
cate,  who,  in  the  year  1854,  visited  our  shores  and  set 
us  all  aflame  with  his  holy  enthusiasm. 

By  an  undesigned  coincidence,  the  opening  lecture 
of  this  course  fell,  in  Edinburgh,  upon  the  exact 
anniversary  of  the  death  of  Doctor  Duff,  February 
12,  1893,  fifteen  years  after  the  departure  of  that 
illustrious  man,  who  was  the  Raimond  Lull  of  our 
century. 

One  of  the  conditions  of  this  trust  is  that  each 
course  of  lectures  shall,  so  far  as  practicable,  be  de¬ 
livered  in  the  various  academic  centres  of  Scotland. 
Hence,  I  undertook  to  give  the  full  course  in  Edin¬ 
burgh,  Glasgow,  Aberdeen  and  Dundee,  and  three 
lectures  in  St.  Andrew's  also. 

Another  condition  of  the  lectureship  is  that  the 
lectures  shall,  after  delivery,  appear  in  printed  form. 
This  made  preparation  with  the  pen  necessary  and 
proper,  on  a  scale  more  extensive  than  was  available 
for  oral  delivery,  within  the  usual  limits.  In  the 
lectures  as  given  there  was  a  fragmentary  and 
perhaps  disconnected  character,  which,  it  is  hoped, 
may  be  relieved  by  that  fuller  and  final  form  in 
which  they  now  appear. 

For  many  years  my  habit  has  been  to  speak  not 
only  without  manuscript,  but  without  much  pen- 
work  in  preparation.  It  was  perhaps  well  that  the 
necessity  of  furnishing  material  for  the  press  com¬ 
pelled  the  writing  of  these  lectures;  for  the  theme 
became  so  absorbing  that,  but  for  this  check  upon 
my  utterance,  the  treatment  of  it,  like  some  of  our 
American  railways,  might  have  lacked  “  solid  foun¬ 
dations,”  “  close  connections,”  and  “  terminal  facili- 


PREFA  CE. 


xix 


ties.”  Even  in  seeking  finally  to  revise  the  manu¬ 
script  for  publication,  Rousseau’s  remark  seems 
forcibly  verified,  that  “one  half  a  man’s  life  is  too 
little  to  write  a  book — the  other  half  too  little  to 
correct  it  when  written.” 

To  make  this  volume  as  far  as  possible  complete, 
I  have  undertaken,  at  no  little  cost  both  of  toil  and 
money,  to  add  to  it  a  Map  of  the  World,  which  may 
exhibit  to  the  eye  the  prevailing  religions  of  the 
world,  with  their  comparative  territory  and  area, 
and  may  also  show  the  progress  of  the  Protestant 
missions  of  the  world  toward  permeating  and 
penetrating  the  habitable  globe.  In  this  part  of 
my  work  I  owe  especial  thanks  to  my  friend, 
Mr.  William  E.  Blackstone,  of  Oak  Park,  Illinois, 
whose  careful  research  largely  forms  the  basis  of  this 
valuable  addition  to  my  published  lectures. 

It  would  be  ungrateful  to  close  this  introductory 
word  without  acknowledging  the  many  unselfish  and 
untiring  efforts  of  various  friends  who,  in  the  several 
places  of  delivery,  so  largely  contributed  to  whatever 
measure  of  success  crowned  my  humble  efforts  to 
demonstrate  and  to  illustrate  the  essential  corre¬ 
spondence  between  the  features  of  this  missionary 
century  and  the  age  of  the  Apostles. 

Arthur  T.  Pierson. 

2320  Spruce  St.,  Philadelphia,  May,  1894. 


# 


\ 


CONTENTS. 


IPA.R'T  I. 

THE  NEW  LINKS  OF  MISSION  HISTORY. 

SECTION  PAGE 

I.  The  New  Chapters,  ....  3 

II.  The  New  Pentecosts,  .  .  .  11 

III.  The  New  Times  and  Seasons,  .  .  19 

IV.  The  New  Open  Doors,  ...  28 

V.  The  New  Era,  .....  38 

PART  II. 

THE  NEW  APOSTOLIC  SUCCESSION. 

I.  The  Calling  of  the  New  Apostles,  51 

II.  The  New  Pioneers,  ....  63 

III.  The  New  Apostolate  of  Woman,  .  133 

IV.  The  New  Lessons,  ....  141 

PART  III. 

THE  NEW  VISIONS  AND  VOICES. 

I.  The  Leading  Voice — The  Voice  of 

the  Master,  .....  147 

II.  The  Call  to  all  Disciples,  .  .  152 

III.  The  Vision  of  the  Field,  .  .  17 1 

IV.  The  New  Lesson  of  the  Power,  .  189 

V.  The  New  Ministry  of  the  Spirit,  .  196 


CONTENTS. 


xxii 


PART  IV. 

THE  NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


SECTION  PAGE 

I.  The  Miracle  of  Conversion,  .  .  209 

II.  New  Converts  and  Martyrs,  .  .  213 

III.  Transformed  Communities,  .  .  249 


IV.  The  New  Witnesses  and  Workers,  .  285 


PART  V. 

THE  NEW  SIGNS  AND  WONDERS. 


I.  The  New  Miracles,  . 

II.  New  Opportunities  and  Preparations, 

III.  Providential  Preservations, 

IV.  New  Judgments  of  God,  . 

V.  General  Administration,  . 

VI.  Miracles  of  Grace,  . 

VII.  Rapidity  of  Results,  . 

VIII.  Answers  to  Prayer. 


293 

3°5 

3°9 

318 

322 

329 

340 

3S2 


PART  VI. 

THE  NEW  MOTIVES  AND  INCENTIVES. 

I.  The  Look  Forward,  ....  375 

II.  The  New  Order  of  Things,  .  .  377 

III.  Medical  Missions,  ....  382 

IV.  The  New  Activity  of  Woman,  .  386 

V.  New  Lessons  from  Experience,  .  .  389 

VI.  New  Incentives  to  Giving,  .  .  395 

VII.  The  New  Appeal  of  Man,  .  .  .  4°5 

VIII.  Harmony  with  God’s  Purpose,  .  410 

IX.  The  Blessed  Hope,  ....  4*4 

X.  The  New  Outlook,  ....  428 


Part  I. 


THE  NEW  LINKS  OF  MISSION  HISTORY 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Part  I.  —  The  New  Links  of  Mission  History. 


THE  NEW  CHAPTERS. 

God’s  coin  has  the  mark  of  His  mint,  and  bears 
His  image  and  superscription.  When  His  Son  came 
to  earth,  though  His  divinity  wore  the  disguise  of  our 
humanity,  behind  His  robe  of  flesh  there  flashed  upon 
His  breast  “  the  star  of  empire.”  And  so,  when  the 
word  of  God  came  in  the  dress  of  human  speech,  it 
shone  with  the  glory  of  God. 

The  manifold  uses  of  the  Holy  Scripture  grow 
clearer  as  we  study  the  inspired  book.  It  is  the  key 
that  unlocks  all  perplexities.  As  Arthur  Hallam 
said,  it  proves  itself  God’s  book,  because  it  is  man’s 
book,  fitting  every  turn  and  curve  of  the  human 
heart.  Bengel’s  motto  was:  “  Apply  thyself  wholly 
to  the  scriptures,  and  apply  the  scriptures  wholly  to 
thyself.”  The  Son  of  God  Himself  found  in  His 
Father’s  word,  His  sword  in  temptation,  His  stay  in 
trial,  His  guide  in  teaching  its  prophecies  were  the 
seals  of  His  messiahship,  its  precepts  the  rule  of  His 
obedience,  its  promises  the  balm  for  His  suffering  ; 
through  life  He  had  no  grander  theme,  and  in  death 
no  richer  legacy.  Modern  critics  often  handle  it  with 
irreverent  hands,  but  to  Him  it  was  sacred  in  every 
part;  and  Michel  Angelo’s  romantic  devotion  to  the 
famous  torso  of  Hercules  in  the  Vatican,  seeking  to 
feel  through  touch  the  thrill  of  delight  no  longer 
granted  through  his  blind  eyes,  is  but  a  faint  image 
of  the  divine  and  holy  rapture  with  which  Jesus 
studied  the  inspired  Scriptures. 

World-wide  missions  present  for  solution  a  most 
perplexing  practical  problem.  Where  shall  we  come 


4 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


for  guidance  if  not  to  these  oracles  of  God  ?  Over 
these  “  pillars  of  Hercules  ”  is  forevermore  written, 
ne  plus  ultra.  Beyond  this  word  there  is  nothing  sat¬ 
isfactory,  nothing  needful.  God.  has  magnified  His 
word  above  all  His  name,  and  here  are  hid  all  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge. 

This  principle  we  seek  now  to  apply  to  one  book  of 
the  New  Testament,  which  will  be  found  to  be  both 
a  history  and  a  philosophy  of  missions  in  one.  That 
book  is  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Here,  what  is 
found  in  the  gospels  in  precept,  is  found  in  practice  ; 
gospel  teaching  as  set  forth  by  the  Evangelists,  ap¬ 
plied  actually  and  historically,  by  the  coming  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

Luke,  who,  in  the  gospel,  tells  us  what  Jesus  “  be¬ 
gan,"  in  the  Acts  tells  us  what  He  “  continued,  both 
to  do  and  teach,”  by  the  Spirit,  through  disciples,  as 
to  the  kingdom  of  God.  Here,  as  in  the  very  order 
of  the  gospels,  the  door  of  faith  is  successively 
opened  to  Hebrew,  Roman,  and  Greek  believers. 
Pentecost  links  Old  Testament  prophecy  with  New 
Testament  history.  This  is  the  book  of  witness  : 
both  man’s  witness  to  God,  and  God’s  witness  to  man; 
the  sequel  of  the  gospels,  the  basis  of  the  epistles; 
not  so  much  the  acts  of  the  apostles,  as  the  acts  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  and  of  the  risen  Redeemer  in  the 
person  of  the  Paraclete. 

Here  the  Spirit  is  seen,  first  applying  the  truth 
and  the  blood  to  penitent  believers,  then  anointing 
believers  for  service,  then  sending  them  forth  as 
heralds  and  witnesses  to  preach  the  kingdom,  to 
make  disciples,  and  to  organize  disciples  into 
churches.  What  meaning  is  wrapt  up  in  the  fact 
that  the  period  of  time  covered  by  this  book  is  only 
about  thirty-three  years — the  length  of  our  Lord’s 
human  life,  the  average  of  one  generation — as  though 
plainly  meant  to  teach  us  what  may  be  and  should 
be  done  in  every  successive  generation,  until  the 
end  of  the  world-age  itself ! 


THE  NEW  CHAP  TEES. 


5 


The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  thus  forms  one  great 
inspired  book  of  missions :  God’s  own  commentary 
and  cyclopedia  for  all  ages,  as  to  every  question 
that  touches  the  world’s  evangelization. 

The  opening  verses  of  each  gospel  narrative  show 
a  fourfold  completeness  and  comprehensiveness ; 
and  what  Bernard  calls  “a  progress  of  doctrine:” 


MATTHEW: 

**  The  Book  of  the 
Generation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of 
David.”  etc. 


MARK : 

“  The  beginning  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of 
God.”  etc. 


LUKE: 

.  .  .  .  “A  declara¬ 
tion  of  those  things 
which  are  most 
surely  believed 
among  us,”  etc. 


JOHN: 

**  In  the  beginning 
was  the  Word,  and 
the  Word  was  with 
God  and  the  Word 
was  God,”  etc. 


Thus  Matthew  links  on  messianic  predictions  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  the  historic  chain  of  New  Testa¬ 
ment  events,  tracing  our  Lord’s  human  beginning 
as  born  of  Mary  but  begotten  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Mark  starts  with  His  mature  manhood,  and  shows 
the  Divine  messenger  delivering  his  message.  Luke 
sets  forth  an  orderly  statement  of  facts  and  truths 
held  to  be  beyond  dispute  by  primitive  believers. 
John  goes  back  beyond  them  all,  to  the  eternity  of 
the  Divine  Word. 

So  do  the  initial  chapters  of  the  Acts  bear  marks 
of  design  as  the  sequel  not  of  Luke’s  former  treatise 
only,  but  of  all  the  four  accounts  which  this  book 
follows.  It  braids  together  into  one  their  four 
strands  of  testimony.  In  the  structure  of  the  New 
Testament  this  is  the  entablature  resting  upon  and 
uniting  the  four  columns  which  support  it  and  which 
it  surmounts.  Hence,  to  read  this  book  aright,  we 
must  perceive  its  fourfold  character  or  aspect.  It  is 
the  book  of  the  advent  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of  the 
generation  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  begotten  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  womb  of  our  humanity.  It  is  the 
beginning  of  the  gospel  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  third 
person  of  the  Godhead.  It  is  the  orderly  setting 
forth  of  the  great  fact  and  truth  of  the  Spirit’s 
outpouring,  as  most  surely  believed  among  those 
who  were  eye-witnesses  of  His  majestic  advent.  And 


6 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


it  is  the  first  clear  revelation  of  the  person  of  Him 
who  as  the  Spirit  of  God  was  in  the  beginning  with 
God  and  was  God. 

In  a  word,  just  what  the  fourfold  gospel  is  to 
Christ,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  to  the  Spirit — the 
inspired  account  of  His  advent,  and  of  the  birth  of  the 
Bride  of  Christ;  the  beginning  of  the  gospel  of  the 
Spirit’s  presence  and  power ;  the  declaration  in  order 
of  that  supreme  secret  of  all  holy  living  and  faithful 
service,  His  inward  working;  and  finally,  the  unveil¬ 
ing  of  His  eternal  identity  with,  and  procession 
from,  the  Godhead.  Truly  this  book  is  the  Acts  of 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

Thus  the  advent  of  the  Spirit,  and  His  activity  in 
and  through  the  Church,  are  the  keys  which  open 
the  doors  to  all  the  chambers  in  this  House  of  the 
Interpreter.  From  the  first  chapter  to  the  last,  the 
theme  is  the  same :  the  coming  of  the  Spirit,  to 
apply  the  truth,  arouse  the  conscience,  soften  the 
heart,  subdue  the  will,  anoint  the  tongue,  and  hallow 
the  lip — to  take  the  place  of  the  absent  Lord — nay,  to 
make  real  to  believers  the  promise  of  His  perpetual 
presence,  by  becoming  to  every  renewed  soul  all  that 
Christ  would  have  been  had  He  remained  on  earth. 

Upon  one  grand  fact  we  lay  great  stress,  and  shall 
recur  to  it  from  time  to  time,  that  by  blow  upon 
blow  repetition  may  deepen  impression.  This  book 
of  the  Acts,  which  is  to  the  Church  the  Principia 
embodying  the  great  laws  and  principles  for  our 
guidance  in  the  work  of  missions  ;  this  book,  which 
is  the  history  of  primitive  missions,  and  like  all  his¬ 
tory  is  “  philosophy  teaching  by  examples,”  illustrat¬ 
ing  the  practical  operation  of  these  laws  and  principles 
during  one  whole  generation — this  book  is  manifestly 
and  designedly  incomplete,  unfinished. 

This  unfinished  character  is  shown  both  by  its  be¬ 
ginning  and  its  close.  That  “  former  treatise  of  all 
that  Jesus  began  both  to  do  and  teach  until  the  day 
in  which  He  was  taken  up,”  implies  this  latter  trea- 


THE  NEW  CHAPTERS. 


7 


tise  of  all  that  He  continued  both  to  do  and  teach  after 
that  He  was  taken  up.  This  introduction  stamps  this 
book  as  a  continuance  and  sequel  to  a  previous  narra¬ 
tive,  which  is  necessary  to  its  full  interpretation. 
Accordingly,  we  are  prepared  to  see  Christ  in  the 
Acts  continuing  His  words  and  works  through  the 
Spirit.  He  who  for  forty  days  after  His  resurrec¬ 
tion  gave  in  His  personal  presence  many  infallible 
proofs  of  the  reality  of  that  resurrection,  here  gives 
equally  infallible  proofs  of  His  perpetual  presence  in 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

How  long  will  He  continue  thus  to  do  and  teach  ? 
So  long  as  He  has  a  believing  body  of  disciples  who 
still  go  forth  into  all  the  world  as  witnesses  bearing 
His  message.  The  wondrous  story  opens  with  the  en- 
duement  of  power,  and  throughout  exhibits  its  effect 
in  qualifying  witnesses  for  their  work :  nor  is  there 
any  hint  that  this  Power  ever  was,  or  will  be,  with¬ 
drawn.  The  narrative  stops,  but  the  history  goes  on. 
Wherever  devout  disciples  claim  in  prayer  and  by 
faith  their  full  share  in  that  Pentecostal  fulness,  they 
may  go  forth  endued  with  power  from  on  High. 
Wherever,  from  that  day  to  this,  Christ’s  witnesses 
have  gone  forth  in  obedience  to  His  word,  the  same 
essential  marks  as  in  the  Apostolic  age  have  attended 
their  service  and  explained  their  success. 

If  now  we  turn  to  the  conclusion  of  the  Acts,  we 
find  a  close  so  abrupt  that  it  suggests  yet  again  a  con¬ 
tinuance  and  sequel.  The  curtain  of  silence  suddenly 
falls  upon  a  scene  of  continued  action.  Paul,  dwell¬ 
ing  in  his  own  hired  house,  is  still  seen  receiving  all 
who  come  unto  him,  preaching  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
and  teaching  those  things  which  concern  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Not  only  the  act,  but  even  the  scene, 
is  incomplete.  Paul’s  life  is  not  brought  to  a  close, 
and  his  work  at  Rome  is  yet  going  on.  Surely  this  is 
an  unfinished  picture ;  the  canvas  awaits  other  touches 
and  tints  from  the  Divine  Artist;  new  scenes  in  mis¬ 
sionary  history  are  to  supply  new  material  for  sug- 


8 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


gestion.  These  last  two  verses  furnish  a  formula  for 
record  for  all  true  witnesses  through  all  aftertime. 
Change  but  the  name,  and  the  number  of  the  years, 
and  each  successive  disciple  may  here  find  a  brief 
epitome  of  his  life  and  labour;  for  whoever,  by  ful¬ 
filling  his  mission,  adds  one  more  unpretending  entry 
to  this  Apostolic  record,  belongs  to  the  Apostolic  suc¬ 
cession.  You  may  think  of  yourself  as  less  than  the 
least  of  all  saints,  yet  if,  in  obedience  to  your  Lord 
and  dependence  on  His  Spirit,  you  spread  the  good 
tidings,  to  you  is  this  grace  given  to  add  and  form 
one  more  link  in  that  golden  chain  that  reaches  from 
the  upper  chamber  of  the  Jewish  capital  to  the  bridal 
chamber  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  which  unites  in 
one  glorious  succession  all  in  whom  Jesus  thus  con¬ 
tinues  by  the  Spirit  to  speak  and  work. 

We  have  therefore  written  intelligently  and  dis¬ 
criminatingly,  in  referring  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
as  closing  rather  than  ending,  for  the  story  comes  to 
no  proper  conclusion,  and  is  designedly  left  incom¬ 
plete.  Here  is  the  story  of  a  generation;  and  no  gen¬ 
eration  ever  reaches  completeness,  but  is  linked  and 
woven  into  the  next,  and  its  history  merges  into  that 
of  its  successor  as  to-day  melts  into  to-morrow.  So, 
most  of  all  is  it  in  the  work  of  missions.  It  is  so 
far  one  work  that  no  eye  can  trace  the  point  where 
the  mission  of  one  of  God’s  witnesses  ends  and  that 
of  another  begins.  Paul’s  preaching  and  teaching 
still  form  threads  in  the  fabric  of  missionary  history, 
and  will  unto  the  end. 

But  in  a  grander  sense  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
reaches  no  conclusion.  When  the  late  Bishop  of  • 
Ripon  characterized  the  thrilling  story  of  the  Apos¬ 
tle  of  the  South  Seas  as  the  “  Twenty-ninth  chapter 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,”  he  was  but  partly  right. 
To  that  striking  remark  history  adds  one  criticism 
and  correction :  that  was  a  new  chapter,  but  not  the 
first  new  chapter  added  since  Apostolic  days.  Long 
before  John  Williams  sailed  upon  his  holy  mission, 


THE  NEW  CHAPTERS. 


9 


many  auditions  had  been  made  to  that  unfinished 
book.  Of  some  of  these  chapters  we  have  no  human 
memorial :  they  are  written  only  by  the  Recording 
Angel  in  God’s  Book  of  Remembrance,  to  be  un¬ 
sealed  when  those  other  books  are  opened  and  read 
amid  the  flaming  splendours  of  the  Great  White 
Throne.  But  it  is  sublimely  true  that  the  triumph¬ 
ant  advance  of  that  Tottenham  lad  who  became  the 
great  witness  for  the  gospel  in  the  Pacific  Polynesia, 
added  a  new  and  glorious  chapter  to  the  annals  of 
Apostolic  Missions.  And  so  far  and  so  fast  as  Apos¬ 
tolic  working  and  witnessing  have  survived  and  re¬ 
vived,  so  far  and  so  fast  have  new  chapters  in  the 
Acts  been  enacted,  if  not  written.  Nor  will  the  age 
of  missions  ever  end,  until  this  Divine  Mission  of 
witness  to  men  is  accomplished.  And  therefore  is 
this  book  left  incomplete,  as  it  always  will  be  while 
one  believer  is  left  to  teach  and  preach  those  things 
which  concern  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  to  fill  up 
that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  in 
his  own  flesh  for  His  body’s  sake, — which  is  the 
Church. 

Our  present  purpose,  then,  is  declared  in  advance. 
We  shall  treat  the  age  of  Modern  Missions,  and 
especially  the  century  of  organized  missionary  ac¬ 
tivity  since  Carey  led  the  way,  as  an  illustration  of 
this  continuation  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  We 
shall  note  some  points  of  comparison  and  of  con¬ 
trast  between  the  Apostolic  age  and  our  own.  We 
shall  look  in  this  book  for  the  clue  to  some  of  the  in¬ 
tricate,  complicate  problems  of  missions,  and  care¬ 
fully  and  prayerfully  search  to  find  the  secrets  of 
success  in  world-wide  witness. 

As  both  brevity  and  unity  of  treatment  will  be 
conserved  by  setting  proper  limits  to  this  discussion, 
we  shall  consider,  first,  the  new  Pentecosts  and  the 
new  openings  of  doors;  then  the  calling  and  sending 
forth  of  the  new  apostles;  then  the  new  voices  and 
visions;  then  the  new  converts  and  martyrs;  then  the 


10 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


new  signs  and  wonders;  and  finally,  the  new  hopes 
and  incentives. 

For  such  a  study  both  the  writer  and  reader  may 
well  invoke  higher  help.  There  is  something  un¬ 
usually  solemn  in  treating  such  a  theme.  We  are  to 
occupy  our  minds  with  the  New  Chapters  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Only  a  spiritual  eye  can  read 
them:  only  a  spiritual  mind  interpret  them.  With 
no  careless  hand  would  we  venture  to  fill  out  the 
sacred  outlines  of  missionary  biography  and  history, 
and,  peradventure,  add  another  touch  to  God’s  un¬ 
finished  book.  But  if  that  same  Spirit  who  guided 
the  pen  of  the  Evangelist  as  he  wrote  this  latter 
treatise,  shall  deign  to  open  our  eyes  and  direct  our 
gaze,  we  shall  be  able  to  read  the  records  which 
history  has  imperfectly  written,  and  gather  inspira¬ 
tion  for  such  holy  living  and  heroic  serving  as  shall 
add  yet  other  chapters  in  the  days  to  come ! 


II. 


THE  NEW  PENTECOSTS. 

Owen,  in  his  Pneumatologia ,  affirms  that  every  age 
has  its  own  test  of  orthodoxy  or  apostasy,  and  that 
the  criterion  of  a  standing  or  falling  Church  in  this 
age  is  found  in  its  attitude  toward  the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  gospel  age  is  especially  His  dispensation. 
This  divine  person  peculiarly  fills  the  horizon  as  we 
study  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles ;  and  we  cannot  open 
the  pages  of  this  book  of  the  Acts  without  starting 
an  inquiry  which  is  first  in  order  and  fundamental 
in  importance.  What  is  the  actual  place  which 
Pentecost  fills  in  Christian  history?  Was  that  out¬ 
pouring  both  the  first  and  the  last,  or  only  the  fore¬ 
most  in  a  series  of  similar  effusions?  Was  that 
revelation  of  the  Spirit’s  power  and  presence  full 
and  final,  or  was  it,  like  Christ’s  own  advent,  but  the 
beginning  of  miracles  and  wonders  with  others  to 
follow?  and  is  that  first  advent  of  the  Spirit  to  be 
succeeded  by  another,  even  more  glorious,  at  the 
end  of  the  age? 

Christ’s  Incarnation  was,  in  fact,  a  hiding  of  His 
true  self  behind  a  veil  of  flesh.  His  star  in  the  East, 
seen  by  a  few  wise  watchers,  guided  them  to  his 
cradle,  and  a  few  holy  souls  who  waited  for  His 
salvation  were  not  taken  by  surprise.  A  little  band 
of  disciples  felt  His  charms  and  bowed  to  His  claims: 
they  saw  His  glory  shine  at  times  when,  as  in  the 
Transfiguration  and  Ascension,  His  disguise  was  laid 
aside.  In  fact,  His  Baptism,  Transfiguration,  Resur¬ 
rection,  Ascension,  were  so  many  stages  of  revela¬ 
tion  of  His  glory,  which  is  to  be  fully  disclosed 
when,  at  His  second  coming,  the  curtain  is  finally 
lifted,  and  the  last  act  in  this  divine  drama  completes 
the  marvellous  manifestation. 

11 


12 


THE  HEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


There  is  a  mystery  of  correspondence  between 
Christ  and  the  Paraclete.  Possibly  that  upper  cham¬ 
ber  was  but  the  cradle  of  the  Spirit’s  revelation:  other 
and  higher  unfoldings  and  unveilings  of  His  grace 
and  glory  are  yet  to  follow;  more  signal  triumphs 
over  Satan ;  louder  and  clearer  voices  and  visions  of 
God;  new  raptures  and  radiances  when  devout  souls, 
transfigured  in  His  presence,  are  changed  from  glory 
to  glory  by  the  Lord  the  Spirit,  as  they  with  open 
face  behold  His  supernal  beauty.  That  coming  of 
the  Spirit  may  have  been,  like  the  blush  of  the  “  con¬ 
scious  water  ”  at  Cana,  only  the  beginning  of  mira¬ 
cles,  wherein  He  showed  forth  His  glory,  a  type  and 
prophecy  of  things  to  come.  This  question  is  not 
one  of  idle  curiosity,  but  of  practical  value;  and  is 
reverently  raised  at  the  vestibule  of  this  theme,  be¬ 
cause  upon  our  answer  all  that  follows  is  dependent. 

It  has  been  commonly  assumed,  without  Scriptural 
warrant,  that  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  Spirit  was, 
once  for  all,  poured  out,  thenceforth  to  dwell  in  the 
individual  believer,  and  especially  in  the  collective 
body  of  believers — the  Church;  and  some  hold  that 
to  pray  for  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  either  upon 
saints  or  sinners,  implies  absurdity  and  contradiction, 
since  He  is  already  bestowed  upon  and  abiding  in 
the  Church. 

To  this  position  exception  may  certainly  be  taken. 
First  of  all,  there  is  in  the  way  an  exegetical  diffi¬ 
culty.  The  inspired  Scriptures  are  marked  by  an 
exactness  in  the  use  of  words  which  shows  that  the 
Spirit  guided  in  language  as  well  as  in  thought.  When 
Peter  quotes  that  unique  prediction  of  Joel,  “  I  will 
pour  out  of  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh”  his  words  are 
carefully  chosen.  He  does  not  say:  “  Now  is  fulfilled 
that  which  was  foretold  by  Joel;”  but,  “this  is  that 
which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet  Joel.” 

Precision  is  one  mark  of  perfection,  and  to  perfec¬ 
tion  nothing  is  trivial.  Matthew’s  uniform  phrase, 
when  he  refers  to  the  coincidences  and  convergences 


TNE  NEW  FEN TE COSTS. 


13 


of  prophecy  and  history  is,  “then  was  fulfilled,”  or 
“so  that  it  was  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the 
prophet” — often  naming  the  prophet.  But,  when 
referring  to  Christ’s  residence  in  Nazareth,  he,  for 
the  first  and  only  time  uses  the  plural — “  that  it  might 
be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophets :  He 
shall  be  called  a  Nazarene;”  because  while  no  single 
prediction  was  thus  accomplished,  the  trend  of  many 
prophecies  is  in  this  direction.  So  in  the  Gospel 
according  to  John,  it  is  very  noticeable  with  what 
accuracy  of  precision  two  prophecies  are  referred  to 
in  connected  verses,  yet  in  different  terms.  Christ’s 
legs  were  not  broken,  but  His  side  was  pierced ;  and 
it  is  added,  as  to  the  former  fact,  “  that  the  Scripture 
should  be  fulfilled ,  a  bone  of  Him  shall  not  be 
broken;”  but,  as  to  the  latter,  “and  again  another 
Scripture  saith ,  they  shall  look  on  Him  whom  they 
pierced.”  In  this  latter  case  the  prediction  is  yet  to 
be  fulfilled ,*  and  hence  while  the  language  of  pre¬ 
diction  is  applied  to  the  event  by  way  of  correspond¬ 
ence,  how  carefully  is  the  record  guarded  so  as  not 
to  exclude  its  true  fulfilment  hereafter. 

Peter  might  naturally  have  said,  at  Pentecost,  “Now 
is  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken;”  but  Joel’s  predic¬ 
tion  was  not  then  fulfilled.  The  “  great  and  terrible 
day  of  the  Lord  ”  is  yet  to  come,  and  the  wonders  in 
heaven  above  and  in  the  earth  beneath  have  yet  to 
be  wrought.  And  another  and  greater  effusion — the 
universal  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  upon  all  flesh — is 
in  the  future.  Joel’s  prophecy,  though  not  fulfilled, 
furnished  the  true  philosophy  of  Pentecost,  explain¬ 
ing  what  was  then  seen  and  heard.  Spectators  said, 
“  these  men  are  full  of  new  wine.”  Peter  answered, 
that  this  was  not  spirituous  intoxication  but  spiritual 
exhilaration ;  they  were  not  drunk  with  wine  wherein 
is  excess,  but  were  filled  with  the  Spirit,  the  new 
wine  from  heaven’s  vineyards.  Careful  comparison 
of  the  second  chapters  of  Joel  and  of  the  Acts  must 

*  Comp.  Revelation  i,  7. 


14 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


convince  us  that  the  cup  of  prediction  has  not  yet 
been  full  to  the  brim,  and  waits  for  a  more  copious 
outpouring.  Pentecost  was  the  summer  shower  after 
long  drought ;  the  final  outpouring  will  make  springs 
gush  forth  and  turn  the  desert  into  a  garden,  and  a 
thousand  rills,  singing  their  song,  shall  blend  in 
rivers  of  grace  that  roll  like  a  liquid  anthem  to  the 
sea. 

There  is  also  a  grammatical  reason  for  not  limiting 
to  the  original  Pentecost  the  Spirit’s  outpourings. 
Different  prepositions  are  used  to  express  the  rela¬ 
tions  of  the  Spirit  to  the  believer.  A  sharp  line 
seems  drawn  between  “  in  ”  or  “  within,”  and  “  on  ” 
or  “upon.”  When  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  regen¬ 
erating,  renewing,  sanctifying,  is  referred  to,  “in” 
and  “  within  ”  represent  His  permanent  influence  and 
abiding  presence :  for  character  must  be  perpetual. 
But  when  His  office  in  qualifying  for  service  by 
special  enduement  is  referred  to,  “  on  ”  and  “  upon  ” 
are  the  prepositions  commonly  used  to  express  that 
endowment  or  enduement  which  is  not  permanent 
but  is  for  the  period  of  such  service. 

This  distinction  is  more  than  grammatical :  it  is 
philosophical.  A  renewed  heart  must  neither  lose  its 
renewal  nor  let  go  its  Renewer.  But  the  anointed 
tongue  needs  its  special  unction  only  while  it  is  used 
in  witness  for  Christ.  Charles  G.  Finney  held  that  a 
true  servant  of  God  might  have  more  than  one  en¬ 
duement,  and  that  he  who,  even  in  spiritual  self-cul- 
ture,  forgets  his  call  to  service,  may  forfeit  his  en¬ 
duement.  It  is  possible  to  be  so  absorbed  in  the 
permanent  ministry  of  the  indwelling  Spirit  as  to 
overlook  the  occasional  ministry  of  the  enduing  Spirit. 

Even  if  it  be  conceded  that,  on  the  day  of  out¬ 
pouring,  the  Spirit  was  once  for  all  given  in  saving 
and  sanctifying  power,  it  does  not  follow  that  He 
does  not,  from  time  to  time,  come  anew  to  saints  in 
gifts  of  power  for  witnessing  and  working.  Some 
careful  Bible  students  regard  Pentecost  as  a  baptism 


THE  NEW  PENTECOSTS. 


15 


wherein  the  Spirit  was  outpoured  as  into  a  vast  reser¬ 
voir,  and  would  now  urge  disciples  to  ask  not  for  a 
baptism  of  the  Spirit,  but  to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit, 
like  empty  vessels  dipped  into  this  Divine  fulness. 

But  our  contention  is  not  for  a  form  of  statement. 
The  one  practical  question  is,  whether  we  are  in 
faith  and  by  prayer  to  seek  for  new  effusions  of  power 
from  on  High,  for  tongues  of  fire  to  make  our  witness 
a  Divine  flame.  Here  lies  the  hope  of  world-wide 
missions.  Without  some  new  unction  from  the 
Spirit,  we  shall  never  feel  that  burning  fire  shut  up  in 
our  bones  which  compels  us  to  witness;  nor  will  our 
witness  without  that  be  a  power.  If  that  lost  art 
of  Apostolic  days  may  be  recovered  to  the  Church,  it 
were  worth  while  to  learn  it  in  the  severe  school  of 
fasting  and  prayer.  A  Church  half  asleep,  a  world 
wholly  dead,  wait  for  such  a  renaissance. 

Yet  a  third  argument  is  the  historical.  As  a  fact 
Pentecost  was  not  the  last,  but  only  the  first  out¬ 
pouring.  It  actually  opened  a  series  of  such  mani¬ 
festations.  This  book  of  the  Acts  records  repeated 
wonders  similar  in  kind  if  not  in  degree. 

When  Philip  preached  in  Samaria,  and  the  rumour 
of  his  success  reached  Jerusalem,  Peter  and  John 
were  sent  thither  by  the  Apostles;  and  when  they 
came  down  they  prayed  for  the  Samaritan  converts 
that  “  they  might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost;  for  as  yet 
He  was  fallen  upon  none  of  them.”  And  they  also 
received  the  Spirit,  similar  signs  following  as  at 
Jerusalem. 

Again,  at  Cesarea,  when  Peter  first  preached  to  a 
representative  Roman  audience,  as  he  began  to 
speak  the  Holy  Spirit  fell  on  them,  and,  as  he  ex¬ 
pressly  adds,  “as  on  us  at  the  beginning.”  Here, 
once  more,  were  the  signs  of  the  first  Pentecost 
wrought,  repeated  even  in  the  gift  of  tongues.  The 
gathering  of  the  kinsmen,  friends  and  retainers  of 
the  Centurion  in  the  palace  of  the  Caesars  is  believed 
to  have  exceeded  in  number  the  original  hundred 


16 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


and  twenty  at  Jerusalem;  certainly  the  results  were 
proportionately  larger,  for  the  Holy  Spirit  fell  on  all 
those  that  heard  the  word,  not  only  in  advance  of 
baptism  but,  apparently,  of  believing  also.  And  here 
possibly  we  have  a  forecast  of  the  final  outpouring 
upon  all  flesh . 

Yet  again,  at  Ephesus,  among  the  Greeks,  Paul 
found  certain  disciples,  probably  adherents  of  Apollos, 
who,  like  him,  had  not  got  beyond  John’s  preliminary 
baptism  of  repentance ;  and  when  Paul  laid  hands  on 
them,  the  Holy  Spirit  came  upon  them  also,  and 
they  spake  with  tongues  and  prophesied. 

Thus,  within  the  bounds  of  this  book  and  the  limits 
of  one  generation,  three  instances  are  on  record  sub¬ 
sequent  to  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  in  each  case, 
with  language  most  explicit,  the  Spirit  is  said  to  have 
“come  upon,”  “  fallen  upon,  ”  been  “received,”  by 
disciples.  If  within  forty  years  there  were  four  dis¬ 
tinct  and  separate  outpourings  in  the  Apostolic  age, 
who  is  competent  to  say  that  in  the  centuries  succeed¬ 
ing  there  have  been  no  other  Pentecostal  effusions, 
and  some  of  them  scarcely  less  wonderful  in  some  re¬ 
spects  and  aspects  than  that  earliest  enduement? 
May  there  not  be  modern  saints  upon  whom  the  Spirit 
has  not  yet  fallen  in  the  Pentecostal  sense,  but  would 
come  in  power  in  answer  to  believing  prayer  ? 

Recent  history  argues  with  the  resistless  logic  of 
events  that  Pentecostal  wonders  may  be  repeated. 
This  modern  missionary  century  has  been  made  both 
lustrous  and  illustrious  by  outpourings  of  the  Spirit,  in 
some  respects  surpassing  any  recorded  in  Apostolic 
days.  Witness  the  story  of  Tahiti  and  all  Western 
Polynesia;  of  the  Hawaiian,  Marquesan,  Micronesian 
groups  ;  of  New  Zealand,  Madagascar  and-  the  Fiji 
Islands;  of  Nanumaga  under  Thomas  Powell;  of 
Sierra  Leone  under  William  Johnson;  of  the  missions 
in  the  valley  of  the*  Nile,  in  Zululand,  and  on  the 
Gaboon  River;  in  Banza  Manteke  under  Henry  Rich¬ 
ards,  and  Basutoland  under  Dr,  Moffat,  Read  the  me- 


THE  NEW  PENTECOSTS. 


17 


moirs  of  Dr.  Grant  and  Fidelia  Fiske  in  Oroomiah;  of 
Mackay  in  Uganda  and  his  namesake  in  Formosa.  Fol¬ 
low  the  work  of  Judson  in  Burma,  of  Boardman 
among  the  Karens ;  of  Cyrus  Wheeler  on  the  Euphra¬ 
tes,  of  Clough  and  Jewett  at  Ongole,  of  William  Dun¬ 
can  in  his  Metlakahtla  and  Joseph  Neesima  in  his 
Doshisha.  What  are  these,  and  hundreds  more  that 
might  be  cited,  but  instances  of  mighty  outpourings, 
in  all  essentials  reproducing  Pentecostal  signs  and 
wonders,  often  on  a  scale  of  majesty  and  magnificence 
scarcely  paralleled. 

If  this  preliminary  question  seem  to  have  undue 
heed  given  to  it,  it  is  for  a  purpose.  Our  supreme 
aim  is  to  offset  the  discouraging  lack  and  need  of 
spiritual  life  and  power  by  the  encouraging  fact  that 
from  time  to  time,  and  in  many  cases,  that  original 
blessing  of  Pentecost  has  in  its  main  features  been 
repeated.  The  history  of  missions  with  uplifted 
finger  points  to  the  glowing  and  glorious  records  on 
her  shining  scroll,  and  solemnly  attests  the  fact  that, 
wherever  the  most  consecrated  witnesses  have  gone 
faithfully  preaching  the  gospel,  there  God  has  exhib¬ 
ited  His  power  and  bestowed  His  new  Pentecosts. 

These  divine  marvels  have  been  wrought  especially 
in  the  following  forms : 

First,  in  the  manifest  calling  and  anointing  of  special 
messengers  to  bear  the  tidings. 

Secondly,  in  the  providential  removal  of  the  natural 
barriers  of  language,  furnishing,  for  the  rapid  acquisi¬ 
tion  of  strange  tongues,  facilities  which  were  unknown 
in  ancient  times. 

Thirdly,  in  the  preparation  for  the  universal  diffu¬ 
sion  of  the  gospel  message,  through  numerous  transla¬ 
tions  of  the  word  of  God  and  Christian  literature. 

Fourthly,  in  the  sudden  and  strange  subduing  even 
of  hostile  communities  and  rulers,  when  human  influ¬ 
ences  were  wholly  inadequate. 

Fifthly,  in  marked  and  multiplied  cases  of  conver¬ 
sion  and  the  transformation  of  whole  peoples. 


18 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Pentecost  may  have  been  repeated  in  modern  times 
without  reproducing  its  exact  original  features.  Sim¬ 
ilar  effects  do  not  depend  on  uniform  causes,  nor  do 
similar  causes  always  produce  uniform  effects.  Facts 
assume  various  forms,  and  are  independent  of  them. 
God  does  not  waste  power,  nor  use  the  supernatural 
where  the  natural  suffices.  When  human  hands  may 
as  well  take  away  the  stone,  He  does  not  bid  it  move 
without  hands  or  send  angels  to  roll  it  away.  The 
great  Economist  of  the  Universe  works  no  needless 
miracles.  He  may  choose  not  to  bestow  the  gift  of 
tongues,  while  He  so  stimulates  philological  re¬ 
search  as  that  a  hundred  languages  hitherto  without 
written  form  have  their  alphabet  and  grammar,  lexi¬ 
con  and  literature ;  and  the  word  of  God  is  without  a 
miracle  both  preached  and  translated  in  over  three 
hundred  vernaculars.  In  our  day,  within  a  space  of 
time  in  which  Paul  could  scarcely  have  found  his  way 
to  strange  peoples,  our  missionaries  learn  to  preach  in 
their  tongues,  and  then  teach  them  to  read  and  write 
their  own  language  and  present  them  with  the  word 
of  God  as  the  first  printed  book  in  their  own  speech. 
So  multiplied  and  marvellous  are  the  facilities  for  the 
rapid  acquisition  of  the  great  tongues  of  mankind 
that  Bengali,  Chinese,  Japanese,  Arabic,  Sanskrit, 
may  be  learned  in  the  Universities  of  England  and 
America.  This  is  something  more  than  a  triumph 
of  human  scholarship ;  it  belongs  to  the  Theology  of 
Inventions,  and  is  part  of  God’s  wonder  workings. 
In  these  and  many  other  ways  He  who  bestowed  mi¬ 
raculous  blessing  at  the  Pentecost  in  Jerusalem  is  giv¬ 
ing  in  His  own  unique  fashion  New  Pentecosts  of 
privilege  and  power  to  a  witnessing  Church. 


III. 


THE  NEW  TIMES  AND  SEASONS. 

The  work  of  a  master  hand  is  seen  in  the  mutual 
fitness  of  all  its  parts.  There  are  a  few  phrases 
which  God  meant  should  be  the  watchwords  of  mis¬ 
sions.  They  are  trumpet  tongued,  they  are  fit  sig¬ 
nals  for  advance,  whose  clarion  call  should  peal  all 
along  the  lines ;  and  when  heard  by  obedient  souls, 
they  have  an  electrifying  power  to  arouse  to  action. 
Among  them  this  is  worthy  to  ring  out  like  the  blast 
of  Gabriel’s  trump : 

The  Fulness  and  Fitness  of  Times. 

Here  is  the  hiding  of  a  divine  idea.  In  Abra¬ 
ham’s  day,  judgment  waited,  because  the  iniquity 
of  the  Amorites  was  not  yet  full.  The  vividness  of 
the  metaphor  is  startling.  We  see  the  cup  slowly 
filling,  and  then  running  over  with  the  blood-red 
wine  of  sin.  Judgment  calmly  waits  until  the  scarlet 
flood  reaches  the  brim  and  overflows  the  iron  chalice, 
and  then  He  who  is  patient  because  He  is  eternal, 
empties  the  phial  of  His  righteous  wrath,  and  war, 
pestilence,  famine,  earthquake,  pour  their  woes  upon 
the  earth.  So  oftentimes  in  human  history,  retribu¬ 
tion  waited  for  the  fit  and  full  season  of  judgment. 

For  blessing,  as  well  as  cursing,  there  is  a  fitness 
and  fulness  of  times.  The  advent  of  Messiah 
waited  till  the  world  was  made  ready,  and  the  fit 
and  full  time  had  come  for  Christ  to  be  born.  The 
obelisks  of  prophecy  had  for  hundreds  of  years  stood 
unread,  waiting  for  the  Champollion  of  history  to 
interpret  their  hieroglyphs,  and  give  meaning  to 
their  mysteries.  All  false  faiths,  weighed  in  the  bal¬ 
ances,  had  been  found  wanting.  Persian  civilization 
with  its  sun  adoration,  Greek  civilization  with  its 
wisdom  and  art,  Roman  civilization  with  its  law 

19 


20 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


and  valor,  Indian  civilization  with  its  philosophy 
of  contemplation,  Chinese  civilization  with  its  ances¬ 
tral  worship — all  these  had  utterly  and  confessedly 
failed  to  arrest  decay;  and  even  Judaism  was  but  a 
skeleton-leaf  of  forms,  whence  the  sap  of  piety  had 
fled.  There  was  a  felt  need  of  some  great  religious 
reform. 

There  was  preparation  positive  as  well  as  nega¬ 
tive.  Roman  roads  had  run  a  highway  from  the 
golden  mile-stone  in  the  Forum  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth ;  and  the  Greek  dialect  had  even  in  Syria  forged 
swift  wheels  for  the  Gospel  chariot  to  speed  along 
the  highway.  Universal  peace  reigned,  and  war  no 
longer  set  nations  at  variance,  locking  their  gates 
and  shutting  their  ports.  The  common  and  con¬ 
scious  want  of  a  more  satisfying  faith  was  the 
prophecy  of  a  new  teacher  and  deliverer;  and  in 
every  land  there  were  seers  who  watched  for  the  star 
that  heralded  the  advent  of  “The  Desire  of  All 
Nations.,, 

Just  at  this  time,  the  first  and  only  point  in  the 
annals  of  the  race  where  such  converging  lines  met, 
while  so  many  facts  hinted  one  grand  issue,  and  so 
many  voices  blended  in  one  loud  appeal,  a  virgin  of 
Bethlehem  felt  in  her  womb  the  quickening  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  the  greatest  birth  of  the  ages  gave 
to  man  Jesus,  the  world’s  Saviour.  When  the 
fulness  of  time  was  come  God  sent  forth  His  Son,  to 
bring  fulfilment  to  prediction  and  redemption  to 
humanity.  The  advent  of  the  long-promised  seed  of 
the  woman  had  awaited  its  full  hour.  Both  His 
cradle  and  His  cross  were  ready;  the  believer  and 
the  betrayer  were  both  at  hand.  Never  before,  as 
never  since,  had  God’s  clock  of  the  ages  struck  an 
hour  so  awfully  meet  for  the  crisis  of  history. 

Here  was  another  of  what  Dr.  Croly,  half  a  century 
ago,  called  “the  birth  hours”  of  the  race.  Man’s 
advent  was  the  first;  the  advent  of  Christ,  another; 
and  the  period  of  the  great  Reformation  was  another. 


THE  NEW  TIMES  AND  SEASONS. 


21 


That  religious  revolution  whose  leaders  were  John 
de  Wyclif  and  John  Bunyan  in  England,  John  Knox 
in  Scotland,  John  Huss  in  Bohemia,  John  Calvin  in 
Switzerland,  Luther  in  Germany,  Savonarola  in 
Italy,  was,  if  not  a  new  birth  hour,  at  least  a  resur¬ 
rection  morn,  to  the  long-buried  Apostolic  faith. 
After  a  thousand  years  in  the  sepulchre  of  the  dark 
ages,  rolling  away  the  stone  of  sacerdotalism,  burst¬ 
ing  the  cerements  of  formalism  and  traditionalism, 
breaking  the  scarlet  seal  of  Papal  infallibility  and 
inviolability,  behold,  coming  forth  into  new  life,  the 
imperial  truth  of  justification  by  faith! 

When,  one  hundred  years  ago,  the  hand  of 
William  Carey  rung  out  from  the  belfry  of  the  ages, 
the  signal  for  a  new  crusade  of  missions,  a  fourth  birth 
hour  of  history  struck ;  and  even  yet  we  are  but  half 
awake  to  the  full  significance  of  this  new  signal.  It 
may  be  well  for  us  to  stop  and  ask  how  we  are  to 
recognize  God’s  plan  in  our  generation,  and  fall  into 
line  with  His  majestic  march — in  other  words,  what 
are  the  signs  that  God’s  fitness  and  fulness  of  times 
has  come? 

Our  Lord  rebuked  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees 
when  they  demanded  a  sign  from  heaven,  because 
they  were  keener  observers  and  safer  interpreters  of 
the  weather  signals  than  of  the  signs  of  the  times. 
In  the  red  and  glowing  sky  of  sunset,  in  the  lurid 
and  lowering  sky  of  sunrise,  they  saw  the  forecast  of 
the  fair  or  foul  day  succeeding;  but  to  God’s  signals 
that  flame  and  flash  on  the  prophetic  and  historic 
horizon,  they  were  blind. 

Behind  this  rebuke  hides  an  indirect  hint  that  to  the 
devout  watcher  history  becomes  prophecy.  The 
morning  forecasts  the  evening ;  and  to-day,  to¬ 
morrow.  God  gives  us  premonitory  and  preparatory 
signs  of  His  providential  purpose,  and  we  should  be 
on  the  alert  to  detect  them. 

The  undevout  historian  is  mad.  Only  the  fool 
says  in  his  heart  there  is  no  God  in  history.  Of  the 


22 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


world  of  events  as  of  the  world  of  matter,  it  is  true 
that  “every  house  is  builded  by  some  builder;  and 
He  who  built  all  is  God.”  History  is  not  a  heap  of 
“ disjecta  membra ,”  but  an  articulated  body,  made 
upon  a  plan,  and  with  joints  and  bands  compacted. 
In  God’s  book  all  coming  events  were  written,  when 
as  yet  there  was  none  of  them,  in  continuance  to  be 
fashioned  as  His  eternal  purpose  should  be  wrought 
into  form.  Weather  forecasts  may  fail,  but  God’s 
signs  and  signals  are  sure. 

Because  the  present,  rightly  read,  predicts  the 
future,  because  God’s  fit,  full  time  gives  prophetic 
and  providential  indications  of  its  approach,  of  what 
immense  importance  is  it  for  us  to  get  a  proper  point 
from  which  to  view  the  horizon,  and  then  to  keep 
up  our  watch !  The  golden  chalice  which  is  filling  is 
God’s  purpose;  its  flood  is  man’s  opportunity.  And 
whenever  God’s  full  time  comes,  the  angel  whose 
stride  spans  sea  and  land  declares :  ‘  ‘  There  shall  no 

longer  be  delay  !”  Then,  or  never,  we  fall  into  line 
with  God’s  movement.  His  times  and  tides  wait  for 
no  man.  Swiftly  His  plan  sweeps  on  to  its  goal, 
leaving  behind  the  sluggard  and  the  idler.  Ye 
watchers,  be  ready,  and  when  the  full  hour  is  come 
for  the  work  and  war  of  the  ages,  stand  in  your  lot 
and  be  not  found  faithless ! 

How  then  are  we  to  read  God’s  signals,  and  what  are 
the  signs  on  our  horizon? 

To  him  who,  in  the  study  of  current  events  would 
read  the  immediate  future,  God  gives  two  guides: 
inspired  prophecy  and  converging  providence.  When 
the  two  combine,  practical  certainty  results ;  for 
when  prediction  nears  fulfilment,  and  providential 
events  converge  toward  the  same  centre,  the  true  seer 
finds  clear  foretokens  of  what  is  at  hand. 

Let  us  apply  these  criteria  to  the  great  birth 
hours  already  noted.  Christ’s  Incarnation  did  not 
surprise  such  devout  seers  as  Simeon  and  Anna. 
They  knew  that  the  seventy  heptades  of  years  which 


THE  NEW  TIMES  AND  SEASONS. 


23 


were  to  elapse  before  the  coming  of  Messiah  the 
Prince,  were  about  complete,  and  as  students  of  the 
prophetic  word,  they  were  on  the  watch-tower  look¬ 
ing  toward  Bethlehem.  The  universal  exhaustion  of 
man’s  resources,  the  wide  prevalence  of  peace,  the 
common  expectation  of  a  coming  Deliverer,  were 
fingers  all  pointing  in  the  same  direction,  and  so 
prophecy  and  providence  confirmed  each  other’s  wit¬ 
ness  to  the  nearness  of  the  Advent  of  Immanuel ;  and 
so  that  “just  and  devout  man”  who  was  “waiting 
for  the  consolation  of  Israel  ”  was  not  found  stagger¬ 
ing  in  unbelief  when  the  infant  Jesus  was  laid  in  his 
arms;  and  that  aged  prophetess  who  came  into  the 
temple  at  that  same  instant,  was  prepared  both  to 
accept  the  Messiah  in  His  swaddling  clothes,  and 
speak  of  Him  to  others  who  “looked  for  redemption, 
in  Jerusalem.”  To  God’s  watchers,  like  them,  the 
Advent  was  the  crown  of  expectation  and  anticipa¬ 
tion. 

The  Reformation  era  came  not  without  horizon 
signals.  Long  before,  in  parables,  vivid  as  panoramic 
pictures,  Christ  had  hinted  the  history  and  “mystery 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,”  the  sowing  of  the  seed 
and  the  growing  of  the  plant ;  the  tares  of  hypocrisy 
and  the  leaven  of  heresy;  the  period  of  apparent 
decay,  when  the  precious  treasure  was  buried  in  the 
field  or  sunk  in  the  sea,  to  be  dug  up  and  dived  after. 
Such  figures  seem  meant  to  forecast  the  accession  of 
Constantine,  with  the  inroads  of  formalism,  secular¬ 
ism  and  scepticism,  and  the  thousand  years  of  night¬ 
shade  when  evangelical  truth  was  buried  beneath 
the  rubbish  of  forms  and  falsehood.  The  next  two 
scenes  in  this  parabolic  series  hint  the  finding  of  the 
hid  treasure  and  the  recovery  of  the  priceless 
pearl. 

But  if  the  forecast  of  prophecy  was  dim,  converg¬ 
ing  providences  lit  up  the  horizon  with  clearer  rays 
that  told  of  a  new  dawn  after  the  dark  ages.  The 
marshalling  of  events  was  signally  significant.  In 


24 


THE  HEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  fall  of  Con¬ 
stantinople  had  started  the  revival  of  learning. 
Greek  scholars,  dispersed  over  Europe  with  their 
manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament,  opened  the  door 
and  paved  the  way  for  the  translation  of  the  Word 
into  other  tongues  and  its  wide  dissemination  among 
the  people.  In  the  last  decade  of  that  century,  a 
new  route  to  the  Indies  linked  Protestant  Britain 
with  the  heart  of  Oriental  heathenism;  also  a  new 
world  was  unveiled  toward  the  sunset.  This  was  like¬ 
wise  the  period  of  the  fall  of  feudalism,  and  of  the 
assertion  of  individualism  with  its  doctrine  of  human 
rights  and  personal  liberty. 

The  theology  of  inventions  found  grand  illustra¬ 
tion.  The  reformation  in  philosophy  ushered  in  a  revo¬ 
lution  in  science.  The  mariner’s  compass  then  first 
coming  into  common  use,  began  to  act  as  a  pilot  over 
unknown  seas.  The  printing-press  in  1450  issued  its 
first  book,  and  that,  a  Latin  Bible.  The  steam  en¬ 
gine,  too,  between  the  meridian  hours  of  that  cen¬ 
tury  and  the  next,  supplied  man  with  a  new  motive 
power.  And  so,  just  as  Luther’s  hammer  was  heard 
nailing  his  theses  to  “  All  Saints’  ”  door,  God  was 
loudly  calling  all  saints  to  rally  about  the  reformed 
standard,  give  the  Bible  to  the  common  folk,  and 
vindicate  their  right  to  read  and  interpret  it  for  them¬ 
selves;  and  to  go  on  swift  keels  and  wheels  to  the 
very  bounds  of  the  globe  with  the  message  of  the 
Reformed  Faith. 

We  take  one  more  illustration  of  the  signs  of  the 
times,  nearer  to  our  day  and  pertinent  to  our  duty. 

That  any  of  God’s  watchers  could  misread  the  signs 
of  the  times,  in  William  Carey’s  day,  is  to  us  now  a 
marvel.  In  all  prophecy  an  age  of  world-wide  evangel¬ 
ism  is  foretold ;  and  in  that  prophetic  panorama  in 
the  thirteenth  of  Matthew,  the  recovery  of  the 
treasure  and  the  pearl  is  followed  by  the  casting  of 
the  drag-net  into  the  sea,  and  by  great  hauls  of  fish. 
All  prediction  treads  toward  one  goal.  Abram  had 


THE  NEW  TIMES  AND  SEASONS. 


25 


the  promise  of  a  blessing  to  come  through  him  to 
“all  the  families  of  the  earth and  all  down  the 
ages,  with  voices  growing  ever  louder  and  clearer, 
prophets  had  told  of  a  day  of  world-wide  missions. 
Christ  plainly  taught  that  before  the  end  of  the  age 
the  Gospel  must  first  be  preached  as  a  witness  among 
all  nations. 

Many  fingers  pointed  to  the  close  of  the  last  cen¬ 
tury  as  God’s  time  for  the  new  era  of  missions. 
While  the  former  half  of  the  century  witnessed  an 
awful  decline  which  threatened  complete  apostasy, 
the  latter  half  was  the  most  remarkable  era  of  re¬ 
vived  piety  and  evangelistic  preaching  since  the 
days  of  Paul.  Jonathan  Edwards,  John  Wesley  and 
Charles  Wesley,  George  Whitefield,  Walker  of  Truro 
and  Fletcher  of  Madeley,  William  Grimshaw  and  Wil¬ 
liam  Romaine,  Daniel  Rowlands  and  Rowland  Hill, 
John  Berridge  and  Henry  Venn,  James  Hervey  and 
Augustus  Toplady,  and  others  like-minded,  began  as 
the  evangelists  of  a  new  era  to  stir  a  half  dead 
Church  to  proclaim  the  Gospel  to  the  poor  and  out¬ 
cast  classes.  The  two  Northamptons  answered  to 
each  other  across  the  sea,  and  Carey,  whose  cobbler’s 
bench  was  a  watch-tower,  saw  that  for  missions  to 
the  heathen  God’s  fit  and  full  time  was  come.  For 
ten  years  he  bore  the  brunt  of  sneer  and  taunt,  and 
the  worse  hostility  of  inertia  and  indifference ;  felt 
the  keen  sting  of  Sydney  Smith’s  wit  and  the  sharp 
rebuke  of  John  Ryland’s  hyper-calvinism.  But  when 
God  lets  loose  a  thinker  and  a  seer — when  a  saint  gets  on 
his  knees  watching  the  dawn,  and  sees  God’s  signals 
flashing — floods  and  flames  cannot  stay  his  progress. 
Between  the  Scylla  of  apathy  and  the  Charybdis  of 
antipathy,  Carey  boldly  steered  for  India.  While 
others  slept  he  had  been  on  the  watch.  He  had  seen 
God’s  signs  and  heard  God’s  step,  and  he  dared  not 
falter  or  delay;  he  must  move,  though  he  moved 
alone. 


26 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  A  EOS  TEES. 


Another  birth  hour  of  history  has  now  come,  and 
blessed  are  the  sages  who  see  the  star  that  guides  to 
the  cradle  of  the  new  age  of  missions.  Even  yet, 
not  every  eye  sees  the  vision  of  God  or  catches  its 
full  meaning.  One  of  the  wisest  thinkers  of  the  age 
says,  that  4  ‘  nothing  but  deep  initiation  into  the 
Spirit  of  the  Bible  can  enable  us  to  form  the  faintest 
idea  as  to  what  historical  events  belong  most  to  the 
divine  plan,  or  have  most  relation  to  the  Kingdom  of 
the  Eternities.”  If  there  be  any  defect  in  these 
words,  it  is  in  lack,  not  excess,  of  emphasis. 

There  was  One  who  was  in  the  world,  and  the 
world  was  made  by  Him  and  the  world  knew  Him 
not.  He  came  to  His  own  possessions  and  His  own 
people  received  Him  not.  This  is  the  one  parable 
and  paradox  of  all  ages.  There  is  One  who  is  in  his¬ 
tory,  and  all  history  is  His  curious  handiwork,  and 
yet  even  historians  recognize  Him  not.  He  comes 
to  the  age  which  is  of  His  own  framing  and  moves 
amid  events  which  unfold  His  own  eternal  plan,  and 
yet  His  own  people  too  often  receive  Him  not.  But 
to  as  many  as  receive  Him,  recognize  His  majestic 
presence  and  beneficent  providence,  to  them  He 
gives  authority  to  become  co-workers  with  God, 
sharers  in  the  glory  of  divine  achievement. 

The  conviction  grows  upon  us  that  the  birth  hour, 
now  fully  come,  is  in  some  aspects  the  most  im¬ 
portant  crisis  of  all  history.  It  marks  the  nativity  of 
twin  offspring.  Time  has  brought  forth  two  giants: 
Opportunity  and  Responsibility.  And  as  might  be 
expected,  never  before  has  there  been  such  combina¬ 
tion  and  concentration  of  world-wide  signals.  The 
whole  horizon  is  aflame  with  aurora  borealis  lights — 
fingers  of  fire  which  reach  toward  the  zenith  as  if  to 
point  man’s  gaze  upward  to  God.  Our  risk  is  not  so 
much  that  we  shall  not  see  these  signs,  as  that  we 
shall  not  feel  their  force  and  read  their  lesson. 
Marvels  are  so  common  that  they  cease  to  be  start¬ 
ling.  The  blare  of  God’s  trumpets  dulls  our  ears  by 


THE  NEW  TIMES  AND  SEASONS. 


27 


its  peal,  and  the  flare  and  glare  of  His  flash-lights 
dims  our  eyes  by  its  glory. 

This  is  no  exaggeration  of  rhetoric  or  outburst  of 
enthusiasm.  The  half  of  the  wonders  of  this  age 
have  never  been  told,  and  their  full  meaning  yet 
awaits  an  interpreter.  Let  any  devout  student  of 
history,  any  sagacious  seer  of  God  who  reads  the 
signs  of  the  times,  tell  us  what  is  the  forecast  of  the 
future.  Behind  the  developments  of  our  day  is  a 
divine  directing  power.  A  man’s  hand  writes  on  the 
wall ;  but  the  writing  is  a  decree  of  God,  telling  of 
world  powers  and  of  false  faiths,  weighed  in  the  bal¬ 
ances  and  found  wanting;  and  of  a  Conqueror  about 
to  receive  the  Kingdom  which  human  monarchs  are 
unworthy  to  administer. 


\  '  >:  \ 
.  \ 


« 


\ 


IV. 


THE  NEW  OPEN  DOORS. 

That  word  Opportunity  is  a  pictorial  word.  It  sug¬ 
gests  a  ship,  before  the  port,  just  sailing  into  har¬ 
bour  after  the  fight  with  wind  and  wave.  True 
opportunity  is  always  God-given:  “  Behold  I  have 
set  before  thee  an  open  door,  and  no  man  can 
shut  it.”  But  doors  unentered  do  not  remain 
open,  and  if  God  once  shuts  no  man  can  open, 
and  we  may  knock  in  vain.  Unused  opportunity 
never  returns:  it  is  forfeited  forever.  One  fact  is 
plain:  open  doors  now  challenge  us  to  enter  every 
land.  Before  us  stands  the  opportunity  of  the  ages. 
The  rapid  and  sudden  multiplication  and  accumula¬ 
tion  of  these  openings  compel  us  to  wonder  and. 
adore,  for  He  who  only  doeth  wondrous  things  is  at 
work,  and  so  the  iron  gates  open  of  their  own  ac¬ 
cord  before  His  messengers  and  heralds. 

A  few  familiar  facts,  which  are  leaders  of  a  vast 
host,  show  that  God  is  on  the  march,  and  summon¬ 
ing  His  Church  to  follow.  Brevity  compels  classifi¬ 
cation:  we  must  look  at  facts  only  in  groups.  And 
this  age  of  wonders  is  but  one  century  beyond  that 
of  Carey;  yet  within  one  hundred  years  what  was 
local  and  exceptional  has  become  cosmopolitan  and 
universal.  With  the  swift  touch  of  God,  He  has 
opened  the  world,  over  which  the  Cobbler  of  Hackle- 
ton  sighed,  to  the  Gospel  which  he  loved,  and  given 
to  the  Church  the  chance  to  occupy  it  for  Christ. 

Keeping  in  mind  that  our  theme  is  missions,  we 
select  seven  of  the  remarkable  features  of  our  own 
age,  all  of  which  are  gigantic  in  character  and  cos¬ 
mopolitan  in  extent,  and  which  constitute  in  our 
day  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world. 

i.  World-wide  Exploration. 

If  we  are  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature 

28 


THE  NE  IV  OPEN  DOORS. 


29 


we  must  first  go  into  all  the  world,  and  this  has  not 
been  possible  to  any  previous  age  as  it  is  to  ours,  for  all 
the  world  has  not  hitherto  been  accessible  or  even 
known.  At  last  the  trackless  pathways  of  the  ocean 
have  been  crossed  and  the  penetralia  of  all  the  con¬ 
tinents  reached.  Land  and  sea  yield  up  the  secrets 
of  six  thousand  years.  Navigation  and  exploration 
have  been  so  thorough  that  we  feel  sure  that  no  con¬ 
tinent  is  veiled,  nor  even  one  island  undiscovered. 
The  frozen  poles  have  been  forced  to  unbar  the  gates 
of  their  ice  castles  and  the  flag  of  the  triumphant  ex¬ 
plorer  is  unfurled  on  their  crystal  battlements.  For 
the  first  time  since  the  world  began  man  knows  his 
own  habitation  and  domain. 

All  this  is  full  of  meaning.  When  God  set  Canaan 
before  His  people,  His  word  was:  “  Everyplace  that 
the  sole  of  your  foot  shall  tread  upon,  that  have  I 
given  unto  you.”  That  law  is  general.  Every  land 
of  promise  waits  for  possession,  and  possession  hangs 
on  appropriation.  The  first  condition  of  a  world’s 
evangelization  is  its  exploration;  and,  because  the 
prows  of  our  ships,  ploughing  furrows  in  every  sea, 
have  made  the  vast  oceans  harvest-fields  of  commerce ; 
because  the  dauntless  explorer  has  pierced  Asiatic 
jungles  and  African  forests,  traced  the  rivers  to  their 
source,  and  scaled  the  mountains  to  their  brow;  be¬ 
cause  the  exclusion  and  seclusion  of  hermit  nations 
has  been  invaded  and  the  veil  rent  in  twain  before 
their  closely-guarded  fanes  and  shrines;  because  the 
public  sentiment  of  mankind  forbids  locked  gates 
and  sealed  ports,  the  way  is  open  as  never  before  for 
the  Gospel  chariot. 

2.  World- wide  Communication . 

This  naturally  follows,  but  not  of  necessity,  for 
doors,  wrested  or  wrenched  open  by  sheer  force*  are 
closed  almost  as  soon  as  opened.  In  this  case,  how¬ 
ever,  the  iron  bars  of  resistance  have  been  broken 
down,  and  the  two-leaved  gates  have  yielded  to  the 
gentler  touch  of  diplomacy  as  well  as  to  the  harsher 


30 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


hand  of  war, — to  the  still  small  voice  of  commerce  as 
well  as  the  louder  threat  of  compulsion.  Bonds  of 
union  have  been  braided  out  of  mutual  treaties,  and 
barriers  that  stood  firm  for  ages  have  been  razed  to 
the  ground,  or  fallen  like  Jericho’s  walls  without  a 
blow. 

Facilities  for  mutual  contact  and  communication 
are  so  multiplied  and  marvellous  that  we  scarcely 
recognize  our  own  world.  Within  the  century  steam¬ 
ships  have  diminished  distance,  by  shortening  time 
to  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  period  required  for  ocean 
voyages.  Steam  carriages  cross  the  continents  so 
swiftly  that  the  limited  express  needs  but  a  contin¬ 
uous  track  to  run  round  the  globe  in  three  weeks; 
and  the  black-horse  not  only  climbs  the  steep  moun¬ 
tain  side  but  bores  his  way  through  its  rocky  heart, 
bridges  river  chasms,  tramps  down  thickest  forests, 
and  dares  alike  Sahara  sands  and  Siberian  snows. 
The  postal  union  bears  letters  and  papers  from  the 
great  centres  to  the  remotest  outskirts  of  the  earth  in 
six  weeks;  and  the  telegraph  wire  and  ocean  cable 
yoke  God’s  lightning  to  human  thought,  flash  news 
to  the  ends  of  the  globe ;  and,  threading  the  vast  body 
politic  with  its  mysterious  system  of  sensor  and 
motor  nerves,  electricity  makes  the  whole  world 
thrill  with  instantaneous  intelligence. 

Now,  at  last,  there  are  no  distant  lands,  no  foreign 
peoples;  the  whole  w^orld  is  one  neighborhood ;  those 
who  were  afar  off  are  brought  nigh.  Once,  to  love 
one’s  neighbour  meant  to  love  him  wTho  lived  next 
door:  but  now  everybody  lives  next  door — and  by 
that  law  we  must  love  the  race  of  man.  Commu¬ 
nication  such  as  this,  making  possible  a  contact  so 
constant,  so  sympathetic,  so  universal,  never  entered 
into  the  wfildest  dreams  of  the  ancients,  and  to  our 
grandfathers  would  have  seemed  incredible.  Had 
Carey  foreseen  and  foretold  vrhat  one  century  has 
made  real,  his  prediction  w^ould  have  ranked  him 
among  madmen.  The  tales  of  the  Arabian  Nights 


THE  NE  W  OPEN  DOORS. 


31 


are  outdone  in  extravagance  by  actual  facts.  God  has, 
through  modern  science,  given  to  man  the  magic  wand, 
the  magic  lamp.  The  genius  of  nature, with  all  his 
mighty  forces  waits  to  do  our  bidding,  helping  us  to 
carry  out  the  last  command  of  our  Lord. 

3.  World-wide  Civilization . 

This  comprehensive  term  includes  all  that  builds 
mankind  into  a  compact  state  or  civil  society, — intelli¬ 
gence  and  industry,  enterprise  and  education,  man- 
.  ners  and  morals. 

Barbarism  is  the  burglar  of  history;  its  deeds  of 
wrong,  robbery,  violence,  are  of  the  night,  and  can¬ 
not  abide  the  day  which  dawns  when  civilization  sheds 
its  light.  In  the  flush  of  the  morning,  blushing  for 
shame,  it  seeks  the  cover  of  darkness.  Such  crimes 
against  God  and  man  as  infanticide  and  cannibalism, 
such  orgies  of  lust  and  blood  as  the  rites  of  Jugger- 
nath  and  the  Meriah  groves;  such  cruelties  as  those 
of  the  torture  rack  and  suttee  pyre,  are  things  of  the 
past. 

Education  is  a  revolutionist,  overturning  intellec¬ 
tual  errors  and  superstitious  faith.  Cuvier  knew  too 
much  to  fear  the  ghost  with  horns  and  hoofs  that 
came  to  his  bed  and  growled  out,  “  I  will  eat  you!  ” 
He  coolly  surveyed  the  sheeted  form,  and  said  to  him¬ 
self,  “Horns  and  hoofs!  Humph!  Graminivorous, 
not  carnivorous !  that  beast  feeds  on  grass  and  grain, 
and  won’t  eat  me.  ”  And  so  the  comparative  anatomist 
went  to  sleep.  Knowledge  is  power.  It  destroys 
even  where  it  does  not  construct.  The  Hindu  cannot 
study  astronomy  and  geology  without  seeing  his 
absurd  cosmogony  fall  in  ruins;  yet  that  cosmogony 
is  so  built  into  his  religious  system  that  the  two  fall 
together,  and  he  loses  faith  in  the  Vedas.  The  Chinese 
study  geography  and  history,  and  learn  that  the  Mid¬ 
dle  Kingdom  must  reconstruct  its  map  of  the  world 
and  its  notions  of  the  race  of  man ;  for  the  Celestial  Em¬ 
pire  is  but  one  among  many  great  nations,  and  Confu¬ 
cius  but  one  among  many  great  teachers.  The  Siamese 


32 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


cannot  look  into  medical  science  without  the  uproot¬ 
ing  of  hoary  superstitions;  nor  the  degraded  Hotten¬ 
tot  learn  common  facts  about  earth,  air  and  water, 
without  finding  that  the  witches  he  fears  are  not 
human  beings  nor  demons,  but  miasma  and  malaria, 
to  be  exorcised  by  scientific  drainage  and  sanitary 
conditions. 

Civilization  is  in  our  day  the  forerunner  of  missions, 
not  only  in  casting  up  a  highway  and  gathering  out 
the  stones,  but  in  putting  into  the  hands  of  Christian 
and  Protestant  peoples  the  balance  of  power.  That 
those  nations  where  the  most  enlightened  form  of 
Protestant  Christianity  prevails  hold  the  sceptre  that 
sways  the  world,  there  is  no  doubt.  Their  sover¬ 
eignty  is  a  conceded  fact.  The  pillars  of  the  world’s 
throne  are  wrought  not  of  brute  force  but  of  brain 
force;  the  granite  columns  of  character  and  culture, 
intelligence  and  integrity.  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  the  giant  empire  of  the  east  and  the 
great  republic  of  the  west,  joined  by  Prussia,  the  Pro¬ 
testant  kingdom  of  the  continent  of  Europe,  wield 
jointly  an  influence  which  Papal,  Pagan  and  Moslem 
powers,  combined,  could  not  resist.  Such  a  fact  bears 
the  stamp  and  seal  of  God’s  design,  and  its  bearing 
on  world-wide  missions  cannot  be  measured. 

4.  World-wide  Assimilation . 

Communication  promotes  actual  contact  and  com¬ 
munion.  The  intercourse  of  travel  and  the  inter¬ 
change  of  trade  have  begotten  new  relations  and 
suggest  a  new  science  which  Lieber  calls  Catallactics — 
the  exchange  of  thoughts.  There  has  come  to  be  a 
new  trade  in  ideas,  a  commerce  of  sentiments. 
Hermit  nations  emerge  from  their  cell  and  shell. 
From  the  sunrise  kingdom  young  Japanese  pour  into 
western  channels  to  absorb  the  secrets  of  occidental 
progress,  and  in  their  reflow,  bear  back  the  new 
ideas  they  have  acquired.  China  sends  her  younger 
statesmen  to  study  at  the  centres  of  Christendom 
the  problems  of  human  progress,  and  bring  back 


THE  NE IV  OPEN  DOORS , 


33 


their  solution.  The  gods  of  the  Celestial  Empire 
actually  ask  questions  of  the  foreign  devils!  Con¬ 
fucius,  the  Chinese  Pope,  no  longer  wears  the  tiara 
of  infallibility.  He  who  shook  his  own  hand  now 
shakes  ours,  respects  the  head  that  wears  no  queue, 
and  the  feet  that  are  shod  with  elastic  hide  instead  of 
unbending  wood. 

The  barriers  between  peoples  are  down.  Barriers 
of  language  once  more  impassable  than  mountains  or 
oceans  are  silently  crumbling.  In  Yokohama  and 
Hong  Kong,  Cairo  and  Capetown,  Calcutta  and  Con¬ 
stantinople,  English  is  spoken:  it  is  becoming  the 
court-language  of  the  world.  Thousands  in  India 
and  Japan  flock  to  hear  men  like  Julius  Seelye  and 
Joseph  .Cook,  who  use  only  their  own  mother 
tongue,  and  in  some  of  the  capitals  of  the  Orient  a 
translator  or  interpreter  is  becoming  so  far  un¬ 
necessary. 

Barriers  of  mutual  misunderstanding  and  suspicion 
are  falling.  Acquaintance  dissipates  false  impres¬ 
sions.  The  “  foreign  devils’*  are  found  to  be 
brothers;  there  is  no  evil  fascination  in  their  eye, 
no  curse  in  their  speech,  no  fatality  in  their  touch. 
Trust  takes  the  place  of  distrust,  and  love  the  place 
of  hate. 

The  era  of  universal  peace  seems  to  be  at  hand. 
Men  are  learning  the  divine  lesson  that  war  is  based 
not  only  on  a  bad  principle,  but  a  bad  policy,  and 
that  O’Connell  was  not  far  wrong  in  stoutly  main¬ 
taining  that  “no  social  revolution  is  worth  one  drop 
of  human  blood.’*  Generous  forbearance,  mutual 
concession,  fraternal  conference  and  impartial  arbi¬ 
tration,  may  settle  any  controversy  without  striking 
a  blow.  War  is  a  serpent,  with  a  crush  in  its  coils,  a 
fang  in  its  jaws,  and  a  sting  in  its  tail.  Its  venom 
heats  the  blood  for  generations.  France  has  never 
forgotten  nor  forgiven  Waterloo,  and  the  memory 
of  conflicts  more  remote  than  the  Crimean  War,  the 
Battle  of  Plassey,  or  even  the  fall  of  Constantinople, 


34 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


rankles  still;  for  though  men  die,  nations  survive. 
Waste  of  treasure  and  of  life  are  bad,  but  waste  of 
good  feeling  and  kindly  relations  is  worse. 

God  sits  at  His  loom.  With  many  shuttles  He 
weaves  into  one  fabric  the  threads  of  national  life; 
and  in  the  woof  and  warp  the  blood-red  threads  are 
getting  scarce.  Peaceful  compacts  guard  the  rights 
and  promote  the  concord  of  men.  Trade  and  travel 
bring  men  together,  and  they  come  to  know  each 
other,  and  to  feel  that  war  must  be  no  more.  In 
1884,  in  Berlin,  fourteen  nations  sent  representatives 
to  the  conference  that  gave  a  constitution  to  the 
Congo  Free  State.  That  conference  marks  perhaps 
the  first  parliament  of  man  and  forecasts  the  federa¬ 
tion  of  the  world;  for  Protestant,  Catholic,  Greek 
and  even  Mohammedan  communities  had  delegates 
there.  The  various  congresses  and  conferences  con¬ 
nected  with  the  Columbian  Exposition  would  have 
been  impossible  half  a  century  ago ;  so  marked  was 
their  testimony  to  the  assimilation  going  on  among 
men,  that  there  seems  risk  of  losing  sight  even  of 
some  vital  distinctions. 

5.  World-wide  Emancipation . 

This  is  another  marvel  of  this  age.  From  the  fall 
of  man  until  now,  human  slavery  has  been  the  fatal 
foe  of  the  best  good  of  the  race;  equally  bad  for 
master  and  slave.  The  nightingale  will  not  sing  in 
a  cage  until  its  eyes  are  put  out.  The  light  of  man’s 
intelligence  must  be  quenched,  the  eyes  of  his  intel¬ 
lect  be  blinded,  before  he  will  submissively  wear 
his  bonds.  Hence  the  castle  of  human  bondage  has 
been  built  upon  the  base-blocks  of  ignorance  and 
degradation,  and  buttressed  with  oppression  and 
compulsion. 

But,  even  when  blinded,  Samson  was  a  safe  victim 
of  tyranny  only  while  his  hair  was  kept  shorn ;  and 
so,  close  in  the  steps  of  human  knowledge  and  en¬ 
lightenment,  has  followed  the  uprising  of  man  in  be¬ 
half  of  his  fellow-man ;  if  the  slave  or  serf  did  not  burst 


V. 


THE  NE  W  OPEN  DOORS. 


35 


his  own  bonds,  civilization  has  broken  them  for  him. 

Great  Britain  could  not  further  share  this  crime  of 
the  age  without  relapsing  toward  barbarism,  and  so 
British  intelligence  and  integrity  sounded  the  tocsin 
that  on  that  memorable  first  day  of  August,  1838, 
pealed  out  liberty  in  Jamaica.  It  was  not  Clarkson 
and  Wilberforce,  but  the  ‘  ‘  Magna  Charta,”  and  the 
Bible,  that  original  charter  of  human  rights,  that  put 
beneath  the  walls  where  human  beings  were  im¬ 
prisoned,  a  lever  mightier  than  that  of  Archimedes. 
Even  despotic  Russia  had  to  grant  at  least  a  nominal 
release  to  her  serfs ;  and  the  late  four  years’  conflict  in 
America  could  not  end  while  upon  one  slave  there 
was  left  an  unbroken  fetter:  those  four  millions  of 
bondmen  were  God’s  “contraband  of  war.” 

Who  but  He  has  brought  it  about  that  not  one  en¬ 
lightened  nation  dares  openly  to  espouse  slave  traffic 
or  maintain  slave  labour?  The  market  for  human 
bodies  and  souls  has  long  been  transferred  from 
London  and  New  York  to  Cairo  and  Constantinople. 
The  voice  of  mankind  is  heard  saying,  “  Away  with 
fetters!”  and  appealing  for  a  parliament  of  man  in 
which  there  shall  be  no  commons,  but  all  shall  sit  as 
peers ! 

Emancipation  means  more  than  bodily  freedom ;  it 
brings  individualism.  Knock  from  the  body  its 
shackles  and  the  mind  begins  to  be  free.  Men 
begin  to  learn  and  think,  to  reflect  and  reason. 
Speech  bursts  its  bonds  and  the  dumb  tongue  is  loosed. 
Instead  of  a  mass  in  which  individuals  are  lost,  each 
man  learns  that  he  is  himself  a  born  sovereign  rather 
than  subject,  having  a  little  empire  of  his  own.  He 
begins  to  assert  himself  and  his  inalienable  right  of 
self-rule.  He  learns  the  dignity  and  majesty  of  mind, 
and  that  no  chain  ever  forged  is  strong  enough  to 
bind  a  thinker.  He  learns  the  grandeur  of  reason, 
and  that  truth  is  resistless  like  the  waves  of  the  sea, 
mighty  enough  to  wreck  the  strongest  bark  of  false¬ 
hood  and  grind  to  powder  the  age-long  rocks  of  error. 


36 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


And  so  to-day  we  see  intelligence,  that  great  agitator, 
striding  over  the  vast  steppes  of  Asia  and  river  high¬ 
ways  of  Africa,  scattering  the  seeds  of  social  revolu¬ 
tion  ;  and  a  bloodless  warfare  of  ideas  is  going  on,  be¬ 
fore  which  strongholds  of  error  and  injustice  are 
falling. 

When  man  begins  to  be  free  in  body  and  mind  he 
learns  also  the  divinity  of  conscience.  God  has  de¬ 
creed  that  no  human  device  of  tyranny  or  torture  shall 
suffice  to  kill  or  curb  man’s  moral  sense;  and  the 
cell,  the  rack,  the  axe,  the  stake,  have  proved  power¬ 
less  to  change  that  decree.  Though  blinded  and 
made  the  sport  of  foes,  conscience  is  still  a  giant, 
that  has  but  to  get  hold  of  the  pillars  of  Dagon’s 
temple,  to  lift  them  from  their  foundations  and 
bring  down  to  the  dust  the  fabric  of  organized  op¬ 
pression  and  regal  wrong.  Dr.  Francis  W.  Upham 
says:  “The  conscience  is  the  servant  only  of  God, 
and  is  not  subject  to  the  will  of  men.  Through  His 
words,  this  truth,  which  reaches  to  social  as  well  as  re¬ 
ligious  institutions,  has  an  indestructible  life.  If  it  be 
crucified  it  will  rise  again.  If  buried  in  the  sepulchre 
the  stone  will  be  rolled  away,  and  the  keepers  become 
as  dead  men.”  * 

Never  before  has  liberty,  both  civil  and  religious, 
reigned  among  men  so  widely  and  wisely.  The 
consequences  are  most  significant  touching  the 
work  of  missions.  For  example:  In  most  lands, 
persecution  for  religious  opinion  is  already  done 
away,  or  if  it  still  survives  it  is  a  relic  of  a  barbarous 
age,  hiding  in  the  darkness  and  resorting  to  the 
secret  weapons  of  the  assassin.  Enlightened  civili¬ 
zation  which  shut  the  gates  of  the  arena  also  put 
out  the  fires  of  the  stake.  Years  since  in  China,  the 
last  of  the  missionary  martyrs  who  died  by  govern¬ 
ment  decree,  was  beheaded.  Where  in  Spain  the 
dungeons  of  the  Inquisition  stood,  harvests  for  God 
are  growing  out  of  the  ashes  of  saints.  India  may 

*  St.  Matthew’s  Gospel,  by  F.  W.  Upham. 


THE  NE  W  OPEN  DOORS. 


37 


ostracise,  but  dare  not  execute,  converts.  All  this 
forecasts  that  wider  emancipation  of  the  soul  of  man, 
when  such  self-conscious  sovereign  shall  learn  to  be  the 
willing  subject  of  the  Lord  of  all,  and  find  his 
highest  freedom  in  the  service  of  a  Higher  Master. 
That  will  be  the  world’s  year  of  jubilee! 


i 


V. 

THE  NEW  ERA. 

Two  of  these  seven  wonders  yet  remain  to  be  con¬ 
sidered,  and  they  serve  to  inaugurate  a  new  era ;  for 
one  of  them  puts  multiplied  facilities,  implements, 
instruments  or  weapons  into  our  hands,  and  the  other 
organizes  and  mobilizes  the  forces  available  for  the 
work  and  war  of  the  ages. 

The  first  of  these  is  World-wide  Preparation. 

In  one  sense,  all  that  has  been  said  of  other  won¬ 
ders  implies  preparation.  But  there  is  one  aspect 
of  the  present  condition  of  the  world  which  implies  a 
preparation  in  itself  so  peculiar  that  it  needs  ex¬ 
tended  reference ;  namely,  the  obvious  and  providen¬ 
tial  furnishing  of  facilities  exactly  adapted  for,  and 
preparatory  to,  a  world-wide  work  of  evangelization. 
These  of  themselves  serve  to  introduce  a  new  era. 

There  is  a  divine  meaning  in  the  fact  that  this  cen¬ 
tury,  most  prolific  of  missions,  has  been  also  most  fertile 
in  invention,  of  all  ages;  the  one  great  epoch  of  dis¬ 
covery,  not  only  in  political  and  social  develop¬ 
ments,  but  in  general  progress  in  art  and  science, 
leaving  behind  all  other  centuries.  The  leading 
statesman  of  Britain  is  credited  with  saying,  that 
social  advance  has  moved  on  such  flying  feet  that  in 
the  first  fifty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  all 
previous  history  was  outrun ;  that  even  this  was  sur¬ 
passed  by  the  next  twenty-five,  and  this  again  by  the 
rate  of  progress  of  the  next  ten.  If  Mr.  Gladstone’s 
estimate  be  correct,  one  decade  of  years  from  1875 
to  1885  witnessed  a  forward  stride  of  the  race  more 
gigantic  than  all  the  previous  ages  of  history ! 

This  is  doubtless  no  exaggeration.  Certainly  since 
the  world  began  no  such  epoch  of  improvement  has 
been  known.  We  have  seen  huge  strides,  leaps  for- 

38 


THE  HE  W  ERA . 


39 


ward  which  make  all  past  advance  seem  like  a  snail's 
pace.  During  the  years  of  this  century  the  movement 
onward  and  upward  seems,  even  to  those  who  are 
borne  on  and  up  by  it,  incredible.  Since  Rome  was 
founded  the  rate  of  progress  has  increased  at  least  a 
thousandfold. 

To  appreciate  this  fact,  we  need  to  stop  long 
enough  to  study  comparative  history.  This  is  the 
world’s  golden  age  so  far  as  invention  and  discovery, 
intelligence  and  material  progress,  can  bring  it. 
Measured  by  achievement  each  year  is  a  century. 
This  is  the  age  of  railway  and  steamship,  photograph 
and  phonograph,  telescope  and  microscope,  spectro¬ 
scope  and  spectrum  analysis;  audiphone  and  micro¬ 
phone,  petroleum  and  aniline  dyes;  steam  printing 
press  and  machine  typesetter;  typewriter  and  sew¬ 
ing  machine;  of  the  discovery  of  forty  new  metals, 
and  the  revolution  of  chemical  science ;  of  the  ocean 
cable  and  the  signal  service;  of  anaesthetics,  and  a 
score  of  new  sciences  and  arts,  of  cheap  postage  and 
the  universal  postal  union ;  of  newspapers,  magazines 
and  popular  literature;  of  machine  work  instead  of 
handwork;  of  free  schools  and  universities  for  the 
people ;  of  giant  explosives  and  gigantic  enter¬ 
prises.  Most  wonderful  of  all,  this  is  the  age  of 
electricity,  which  already  serves  man  as  motor,  mes¬ 
senger  and  illuminator,  is  to  be  applied  to  forging  as 
well  as  plating  metals,  and  no  one  knows  to  how  many 
other  uses. 

In  Robert  Mackenzie’s  graphic  sketch  of  “  The 
Nineteenth  Century,”  he  calls  this  feature  of  our 
times  “  the  great  outbreak  of  human  inventiveness 
which  left  no  province  of  human  affairs  unvisited.” 
With  strange  and  startling  suddenness  men’s  eyes 
opened  to  see  how  rude  and  crude  were  previous 
methods  and  appliances,  and  at  the  same  time  those 
eyes  became  endowed  with  a  scientific  insight  and 
foresight  almost  superhuman.  Man  became  not  only 
scientist  but  seer;  before  him  limitless  paths  of  possi- 


40 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


ble  progress  stretched  toward  a  goal  so  advanced,  yet 
so  entrancing,  that  the  enchanting  vision  quickened 
the  pace  of  the  whole  race,  as  though  men  had  on  the 
mythical  ‘‘seven-league  boots,”  or  the  winged  san¬ 
dals  of  Mercury. 

Wherever  a  high  civilization  has  shone,  mankind  has 
felt  the  thrill  of  a  new  passion  for  investigation  and  im¬ 
provement.  See  the  human  form  become  practically 
transparent,  as  the  speculum,  stethoscope,  laryngo¬ 
scope,  opthalmoscope,  microscope,  and  electric  lamp 
guide  the  physician  and  surgeon  in  searching  the 
darkest  hiding  places  of  disease.  Lithotomy  gives 
place  to  lithotrity.  Limbs,  once  amputated,  are  now 
straightened  and  strengthened.  Since  1815,  the  treat¬ 
ment  of  the  insane  has  undergone  a  revolution  as 
radical  and  significant  as  the  new  era  of  conservative 
surgery.  Machinery  now  works  cotton  and  wool, 
metal  and  wood,  and  new  motors  do  our  planing  and 
carving,  hammering  and  rolling,  sowing,  mowing, 
ploughing,  reaping,  threshing  and  binding. 

We  do  not  appreciate  all  this  glory  of  achievement, 
because  the  wonders  of  the  age  dazzle  our  eyes  and 
dull  our  vision. 

Let  us  glance  once  more  at  the  electric  telegraph. 
As  the  earth’s  rotation  on  its  axis  takes  a  full  day, 
points  on  its  surface  at  antipodes  to  each  other  are 
twelve  hours  apart,  reckoning  by  the  sun.  But  tele¬ 
graphic  signals  flash  instantaneously,  and  so  far  out¬ 
run  the  sun’s  apparent  motion  that  an  afternoon  mes¬ 
sage,  cabled  from  London,  is  read  in  San  Francisco  on 
the  morning  of  the  same  day,  and  there  are  points 
further  westward  where  we  might  have  the  paradox 
of  publishing  news  of  an  event  twenty-four  hours 
before  it  takes  place!  This  prompts  Mackenzie  to 
rank  the  telegraph  as  the  first  human  invention 
which  is  obviously  final.  In  the  race  of  human  im¬ 
provement,  steam  may  give  place  to  some  yet  might¬ 
ier  power,  as  gas  is  already  superseded  by  a  better 
method  of  lighting;  but,  “  no  agency  for  conveying  in- 


THE  NEW  ERA . 


41 


telligence  can  ever  excel  that  which  is  instantaneous. 
Here  for  the  first  time  the  human  mind  has  reached 
the  utmost  limit  of  its  progress.”* 

This  unparalleled  progress  belongs  mostly  to  the 
half  century  now  nearing  its  close.  During  fifty  years 
the  more  prominent  achievements  of  the  age  have 
been  reduced  to  practical  form.  Almost  the  entire 
system  of  railway  is  the  product  of  this  brief  period. 
The  first  sun-picture  dates  back  but  sixty  years,  just 
before  the  death  of  Daguerre,  from  whom  it  took  its 
name,  and  already  we  have  a  score  of  new  applica¬ 
tions  of  this  principle.  These  inventions  alone  link 
the  ages  together,  ushering  in  a  new  era  of  art  and 
letters,  making  the  sun  himself  the  artist  and  sculp¬ 
tor  of  the  coming  era.  Already  the  sun’s  ray  has 
wedded  the  delicate  lens,  and  given  birth  to  micro¬ 
scopic  photography;  so  that  during  the  siege  of  Paris 
pages  of  the  London  Times ,  photographed  upon  a 
square  inch  of  surface,  were  borne  by  carrier  pigeons 
to  the  French  capital,  there  to  be  magnified  and  re¬ 
produced.  And  it  would  seem  that  the  sunbeam, 
already  used  for  a  pencil  and  chisel,  is  about  to  surpass 
the  pigments  of  the  painter,  using  sensitized  paper 
in  place  of  canvas  and  giving  us  colour  as  well  as 
form. 

The  phonograph,  at  first  a  scientific  toy,  has  be¬ 
come  an  automatic  clerk,  recording  and  repeating  a 
message,  and  has  begun  to  be  used  for  that  difficult  art, 
the  analysis  and  reproduction  of  animal  sounds  and 
utterances ;  and  it  makes  possible  for  future  genera¬ 
tions  to  hear  the  words  and  voices  of  dead  orators 
and  statesmen,  poets,  and  preachers.  It  is  within 
this  half  century  that  the  spectroscope  has  brought 
other  orbs  near  enough  to  analyze  their  light  and 
learn  the  substances  burning  in  their  photospheres; 
and  the  invaluable  service  of  the  spectroscope  in  re¬ 
fining  and  working  metals,  shows  its  possible  utility 
in  manufacture. 

*  The  Nineteenth  Century,  197. 


42 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Anaesthetics,  which  renders  medical  and  surgical 
treatment  comparatively  painless  and  so  reduces  hu¬ 
man  suffering  to  a  minimum,  is  so  recent  a  discov¬ 
ery  that  many  yet  living  remember  its  well-nigh 
tragic  beginning  in  Edinburgh  in  1847.  The  giant 
explosives — nitroglycerine,  dynamite,  giant  powder, 
etc.,  have  already  displaced  older  and  tedious 
methods  of  clearing  the  earth’s  surface  of  stumps 
and  debris,  and  opening  its  veins  of  metal  and  min¬ 
eral.  Delicate  photometers  and  micrometers,  every 
form  of  monster  machinery  or  delicate  mechanism, 
belong  to  this  age ;  while  science  teaches  us  drainage 
and  irrigation,  analysis  and  enrichment  of  the  soil 
and  secrets  of  fertility,  turns  deserts  into  gardens, 
and  makes  every  spot  available  for  building  a  habita¬ 
tion  and  earning  a  livelihood. 

If  such  be  the  progress  of  this  half  century, 
nothing  which  men  may  imagine  to  do  seems 
impossible  in  the  new  era  just  opening,  when  science 
promises  to  navigate  air  as  well  as  sea  and  build  ships 
to  master  winds  as  well  as  waves.  Forms  of  force 
hitherto  unknown  are  now  undergoing  experiment. 
Secrets,  hidden  even  from  this  century,  are  yielding  to 
human  investigation,  and  a  decade  of  years  may 
witness  a  revolution  greater  than  that  which  even  in 
our  day  has  turned  the  world  upside  down. 

We  have  laid  stress  upon  this  march  of  human 
improvement,  not  so  much  because  of  the  lightning 
pace  of  this  advance,  as  because  of  its  obvious 
connection  with  God’s  providential  purpose.  It  is 
one  great  sign  of  the  times.  It  marks  this  as  the 
golden  age  of  opportunity.  A  world’s  evangelization 
is  not  only  possible  but  practicable,  with  a  rapidity 
proportionate  to  progress  in  other  directions.  On  the 
pages  of  history  in  large  letters  it  is  written  that  the 
periods  of  most  marked  progress  exactly  synchronize 
with  the  eras  of  most  active  missionary  effort.  Clear 
as  the  weather  signals  in  the  sky,  is  this  glowing 
sign  of  God’s  plan  in  this  generation.  His  mind  is 


THE  NE  W  ERA . 


43 


the  vital  spring  of  man’s  intellectual  life.  He  is  the 
fountain  of  life,  and  in  His  light  do  we  see  light. 
It  was  He  who  kept  a  continent  veiled  for  five 
thousand  years,  rending  the  veil  only  when  a  re¬ 
formed  Church  with  an  unchained  Bible  was  ready 
to  enter  it  and  make  it  the  theatre  of  new  gospel 
triumphs.  It  was  He  who,  locked  nature’s  secrets 
within  her  dark  chambers,  until  amissionary  Church 
was  aroused  to  yoke  to  His  chariot  the  new  fofces 
and  appliances.  God  is  surely  speaking.  To  the 
reverent  ear  the  still  small  voice  is  more  impressive 
than  peals  of  thunder.  “Behold  I  have  set  before 
thee  an  open  door.”  An  open  door  to  the  nations — 
the  world  before  us;  an  open  door  into  Nature’s 
Arcana,  with  all  her  machinery  and  forces  to  do  our  bid¬ 
ding.  Opportunities  are  matched  by  facilities  equally 
great.  Never  such  a  work  to  be  done,  never  such 
tools  to  work  with.  What  responsibility,  if  such 
opportunity  be  lost  and  such  facilities  lie  unused ! 

The  last  of  these  seven  modern  wonders  is 
world-wide  Organization . 

Organization  is  the  watchword  of  the  Age.  Never 
before  was  there  such  a  period  of  practical  union 
among  men  for  all  the  ends  of  material,  intellectual 
and  social  improvement.  Organization  is  rapidly 
extending  and  far-reaching;  its  triumphs  are  so  mul¬ 
tiplied  and  magnificent  that  they  constitute  the  peril 
of  the  age,  threatening  to  erect  a  despotism  whose 
iron  sceptre  shall  be  resistless  and  remorseless. 
Already  the  Giant  is  on  the  throne;  he  lifts  his 
finger,  and  great  railway  systems  are  locked  in  in¬ 
action;  factory  wheels  stop,  ships  lie  in  the  docks, 
buildings  wait  for  workmen,  mines  remain  unworked ; 
labor’s  hundred  hands  are  chained,  and  action  is 
exchanged  for  petrifaction.  Man  has  created  a 
Frankenstein,  and  knows  not  how  to  manage  the 
monster. 

While  we  cannot  deny  the  risks  attending  organi¬ 
zation  in  reckless  hands,  we  must  confess  both  its 


44 


THE  HE  IV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


widespread  influence,  and  its  great  utility  when 
under  rational  control.  What  master  organizations 
the  Church  already  commands  as  helpers!  The 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  is  an  example,  the 
creation  of  the  last  half  century,  yet  a  huge  banyan, 
whose  original  root  was  in  British  soil,  but  throwing 
out  branches  on  all  sides,  across  continents  and 
oceans  into  new  countries,  bending  down  to  take 
root  in  papal,  pagan,  moslem  and  heathen  communi¬ 
ties,  until  there  remains  scarce  a  land  in  any  clime 
where  this  gigantic  and  beneficent  growth  has  not 
reached. 

The  Young  People’s  Society  of  Christian  En¬ 
deavour  is  a  yet  younger  giant,  fourteen  years  old,  yet 
in  rapidity  of  growth,  daring  enterprise,  boundless 
influence  and  burning  enthusiasm,  leaving  already 
behind  it  any  other  organization  ever  known  on  this 
planet. 

Let  these  illustrate  the  genius  of  the  age  when 
everybody  organizes.  Barristers  and  judges,  physi¬ 
cians  and  surgeons,  artists  and  artisans,  underwriters 
and  undertakers,  cabmen  and  cartmen,  shoeblacks 
and  newsboys — every  learned  profession  and  every 
form  of  work  resorts  to  organization.  Were  there 
some  new  trade  to-day  with  only  two  engaged  in  it, 
they  would  begin  by  drawing  up  articles  of  associ¬ 
ation  and  forming  a  co-operative  union. 

The  reason  is  plain.  Men  will  dare  attempt,  and 
can  together  accomplish,  what  no  one  would  try  to 
do,  or  could  do,  alone ;  and  so  they  resort  to  associ¬ 
ated  effort.  Great  and  manifold  advantages  spring 
from  co-operation.  When  hand  joins  hand,  the  weak 
and  timid  get  strength  and  courage,  and  momentum 
is  imparted  to  a  movement  in  which  individual  forces 
are  combined  and  concentrated.  Great  enterprises 
are  possible  only  to  an  epoch  of  organization,  and  so 
we  find  business  schemes  pushing  triumphantly  to 
the  very  borders  of  civilization. 

Compare  present  history  with  past  records.  Before 


THE  NE  W  ERA. 


»  45 


/ 


the  time  of  Christ,  isolation  was  the  law.  Nations 
had  little  touch  with  each  other.  Universal  empires 
were  the  aggregates  of  separate  states,  held  together 
by  those  iron  bands  which  conquest  imposes  and 
despotism  rivets.  The  unity  was  that  of  frost,  not 
of  fire  and  fusion.  To  gather  strange  peoples  under 
one  sceptre,  or  conglomerate  empires  into  one  huge 
monarchy,  insures  no  unity.  Barriers  are  not  broken 
down,  and  there  is  no  sympathetic  bond  or  brother¬ 
hood  any  more  than  between  Jews  and  Samaritans. 

How  changed  the  whole  aspect  of  affairs!  We 
stand  in  the  blazing  focal  centre  of  world-wide  enter¬ 
prise.  Discovery  sends  its  heralds  to  trumpet  its 
triumph  from  rising  to  setting  sun.  Invention  yokes  to 
its  car  steam  and  lightning,  and  flies  as  on  the  wings  of 
the  morning  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  and 
sea.  Many  run  to  and  fro ;  and  knowledge  is  increased. 
Material  advance  has  its  million  messengers  who 
haste  to  do  its  bidding.  This  is  the  world’s  Messiah, 
which  bids  disciples  go  into  all  the  world  and  proclaim 
to  every  creature  the  good  tidings  of  human 
improvement;  and  forthwith  go  the  myriad  mis¬ 
sionaries  of  invention  and  discovery,  needing  no 
second  summons.  The  swiftest  ships  and  carriages 
are  not  fleet  enough  conveyances  for  the  new  apostles 
of  science  and  art.  They  dare  the  sea  with  its  tem¬ 
pest  and  tornado;  defy  forest  and  jungle,  river  and 
mountain,  plague  and  famine,  hot  sands  and  frozen 
bergs.  And  all  for  what?  To  tell  men  of  the  oil-lamp 
and  the  sewing-machine,  the  timepiece  and  the 
parlor  organ ;  to  sell  ribbons  and  calicoes,  fire-arms 
and  rum-jugs,  soap  and  flour,  at  the  earth’s  ends. 
Trade  and  traffic,  agriculture  and  manufacture,  push 
their  conquests  by  organizing  and  co-operating;  and 
so,  in  quarters  most  remote,  in  inland  hamlets  as 
well  as  populous  cities,  and  on  islands  a  half  century 
ago  unknown,  you  may  find  to-day  all  the  appliances 
of  enlightened  society. 

The  theme  loudly  enforces  its  own  lesson  and  • 


46 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


appeal.  To  world-wide  missions,  organization  and 
co-operation  are  essential.  Shall  the  Church  be  slow 
to  learn  the  lesson  of  the  age?  and  her  Master  wait 
for  willing  feet  to  run  on  His  errand  of  grace,  His 
mission  of  mercy  and  salvation? 

It  is  true  the  children  of  light  have  already  re¬ 
sorted  to  organized  effort  in  missions.  William 
Carey  was  the  pioneer,  not  of  missions  so  much  as 
of  organization;  and  since  his  day,  this  has  become 
so  distinctive  a  feature  of  Church  activity  that  the 
marked  success  attained  since  1792  is  traceable  to 
associated  work.  By  organization  it  has  already 
come  to  pass  that,  although  we  have  not  absolutely 
reached  every  nation,  still  less  every  creature,  our 
network  of  missions  stretches  round  the  globe  and 
covers  the  earth. 

And  yet,  in  many  quarters,  how  large  are  the 
meshes  and  how  far  apart  the  cords  of  that  network. 
We  have  more  than  one  hundred  and  seventy  mis¬ 
sionary  boards  and  societies,  and  over  one  hundred 
and  ten  missionary  organizations  controlled  by 
women;  and  these  all,  nearly  three  hundred,  are  the 
outcome  of  this  century  past,  and  most  of  them  of 
the  last  fifty  years.  Yet  what  are  even  these  among 
so  many!  We  have  but  begun  as  yet  our  work  of  a 
world's  evangelization. 

The  old  command  of  Christ  echoes  down  the  long 
aisles  of  the  ages,  Evangelize !  And  the  new  voice  of 
the  Providence  that  speaks  through  events  in  this 
missionary  era,  peals  out,  Organize!  Lengthen  thy 
cords  and  strengthen  thy  stakes.  A  love  that  is  like 
God’s,  must  multiply  and  extend  a  thousandfold  its 
lines  of  holy  effort,  and  drive  ten  thousand  times  as 
many  stakes  deep  down  into  the  intelligent  conviction 
and  unselfish  affection  of  Christ’s  disciples. 

God  leaves  His  Church  without  excuse  or  even 
pretext,  if  missions  be  not  prosecuted  as  a  world-wide 
enterprise.  In  a  sense  never  thought  of  when  that 
promise  was  spoken,  the  Lord  is  with  us — with  us, 


THE  NE  W  ERA . 


47 


unlocking  the  gates  of  hermit  nations,  battering 
down  the  wall  of  China,  unsealing  the  ports  of 
Japan  and  Corea,  cleaving  a  path  to  the  heart  of 
Africa — with  us  to  unchain  the  human  mind  and  re¬ 
veal  the  secrets  of  nature.  We  may  now  go  into  all 
the  world,  and  to  every  man  in  his  own  tongue  give 
the  word  of  God. 

There  was  never  such  a  work  for  the  time,  nor 
such  a  time  for  the  work.  The  opportunities  and 
facilities  offered  to  us  make  even  such  a  task  easy 
and  such  a  load  light,  turning  weights  into  wings 
and  burdens  into  pinions,  to  the  willing  soul.  Know¬ 
ing  God’s  season,  the  fulness  and  fitness  of  His  ap¬ 
pointed  time,  it  is  also  man’s  opportune  hour,  high 
time  to  awake  out  of  sleep,  and  the  world’s  critical 
hour  of  need  and  want.  Dull  and  dead,  indeed, 
must  he  be  who  sees  not  the  signs  of  the  times,  hears 
not  the  voices  that  call  and  the  signals  that  sound, 
and  heeds  not  the  approaching  end  of  the  age !  The 
Captain  of  our  Salvation  is  blowing  a  blast  on  His 
bugle — everything  echoes  His  command,  Forward! 
Why  do  we  delay? 


Part  II. 


THE  NEW  APOSTOLIC  SUCCESSION 


I. 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  NEW  APOSTLES. 

“ There  were  giants  in  those  days”  is  the  terse 
record  of  the  age  before  the  flood. 

Every  age  has  its  own  giants ;  some  great  in  physi¬ 
cal  stature,  others  mighty  in  mind,  majestic  in  moral 
character,  born  to  command  and  control.  Even  in 
earth’s  golden  ages  the  giants  are  rare,  for  God  does 
not  make  such  gifts  too  common ;  but  it  is  the  few, 
always,  whose  words  shake  the  world,  whose  deeds 
move  and  mould  men,  whose  lives  shape  the  history 
and  destiny  of  the  race.  Carlyle  calls  history  but  the 
“lengthened  shadows  ”  of  the  world’s  great  men.  Is 
it  not  rather  the  lingering  twilight,  prolonging  their 
influence,  perpetuating  their  memory  even  when  their 
sun  has  set,  and  long  lighting  up  the  evening  sky? 
Is  not  the  horizon  still  aflame  from  many  a  grand  and 
noble  life,  long  since  withdrawn  from  among  men? 

The  modern  missionary  era  has  given  birth  to  a  royal 
race  of  giants ;  in  fact,  so  mighty  have  been  these  men 
and  women,  so  herculean  their  labors,  so  heroic  their 
achievements,  that  they  seem  rather  to  have  made  the 
age  than  the  age  them.  Some  of  them  were  before 
our  day,  but  we  trace  the  path  they  trod,  by  their 
gigantic  footprints.  Others  we  have  seen  growing 
to  great  stature  and  mounting  to  thrones  of  power; 
and  still  others  yet  walk  among  men,  and  make  the 
continents  shake  beneath  their  tread.  They  have 
made  the  priests  of  idol  fanes  tremble  with  fear; 
and  as  the  God  of  this  world  sees  them,  like  their 
Master,  working  the  works  and  speaking  the  words  of 
God,  he  knows  that  his  time  is  short.  They  are  not 
always  recognized  as  great  by  the  world,  for  their 
greatness  is  not  of  this  world  nor  measured  by  its 
standards.  God’s  giants  have  not  always  great  heads, 

*  51 


52 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


but  they  always  have  “  great  hearts.”  His  captains 
are  not  the  princes  of  this  world  that  come  to  naught, 
not  the  wise,  mighty,  noble  in  men’s  eyes ;  but  those 
of  great  faith,  holy  love,  who  walk  with  God  and 
work  and  war  in  His  name,  like  those  of  old  whose 
names  are  graven  in  that  record  in  Hebrews — that 
“  Westminster  Abbey”  of  Old  Testament  worthies — 
“who  through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought 
righteousness,  obtained  promises,  out  of  weakness 
were  made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to 
flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens.”  Let  us  thank  God  for 
a  type  of  gianthood  to  which  all  believers  may  both 
aspire  and  attain !  Not  only  venerable  ‘ 6  fathers,  ”  but 
“young  men,”  in  whom  the  word  of  Godabideth,  may 
be  strong,  and  even  “  little  children”  may  overcome  the 
evil  one  ;  because  greater  is  He  that  is  in  them  than 
he  that  is  in  the  world.  The  fable  of  Hercules  is  in 
Christian  History  become  fact;  for  new-born  babes 
while  yet  in  the  cradle  of  faith  have  laid  hold  of  the 
serpent  with  a  giant’s  grip. 

The  study  of  the  missionary  age  is  the  story  of  the 
giants,  and  let  us  hope  to  read  so  well  the  lessons  of 
their  lives  as  to  work  wonders  in  the  same  Almighty 
name! 

Every  work  must  wait  for  workmen,  trained  to 
fitness  in  their  work.  And  so  this  book  of  the  Acts 
and  facts  of  the  Apostolic  age,  reveals  the  actors,  the 
factors  in  this  work  for  God.  The  history  of  primi¬ 
tive  missions  gives  glimpses  of  the  primitive  mis¬ 
sionaries. 

Because  history  is  the  record  of  facts  which  demand 
the  personal  factor,  the  key  of  history  is  biography, 
that  most  suggestive  and  instructive  of  all  studies. 
To  portray  the  lives  of  men  is,  as  Dionysius  of  Hali¬ 
carnassus  said,  to  “  teach  philosophy  by  examples.” 
By  the  analysis  of  character  we  detect  the  elements 
of  success  and  the  causes  of  failure.  Principles  and 
precepts  are  abstract  statements  of  truth,  but  virtue 
and  vice  teach  best  through  concrete  forms;  and 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  NEW  APOSTLES. 


53 


hence  this,  best  of  all  books,  is  a  gallery  of  portraits, 
where  we  may  study  the  lives  of  men,  following 
their  faith  and  shunning  their  faults  and  follies ;  a 
gallery  where  the  picture  of  one  perfect  life,  so  lus¬ 
trous  as  to  disdain  even  a  frame  of  gold,  forever 
challenges  imitation. 

Thus,  then,  our  study  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
leads  us  to  look  at  the  actors  who  took  part  in  mis¬ 
sions  to  a  lost  world.  First  there  was  Peter,  to  whom 
it  was  given  to  open  the  door  of  faith  to  both  Jew 
and  Gentile,  and  whose  figure  stands  out  boldly  in 
the  opening  scenes  of  this  history.  But  a  more  sig¬ 
nificant  point,  both  critical  and  pivotal,  is  reached 
further  on,  in  the  formal  selection  and  separation  of 
Barnabas  and  Saul,  to  a  distinct  and  distinctive  mis¬ 
sionary  career  and  service. 

Let  us  place  prominently  before  us  the  opening 
verses  of  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  Acts : 

Now  THERE  WERE  IN  THE  CHURCH  THAT  WAS  AT 

Antioch  certain  prophets  and  teachers;  as  Bar¬ 
nabas,  and  Simeon  that  was  called  Niger,  and 
Lucius  of  Cyrene,  and  Manaen,  which  had  been 

BROUGHT  UP  WITH  HEROD  THE  TETRARCH,  AND  SAUL. 
AS  THEY  MINISTERED  TO  THE  LORD,  AND  FASTED, 

the  Holy  Ghost  said,  separate  Me  Barnabas  and 
Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called 
them.  And  when  they  had  fasted  and  prayed, 

AND  LAID  THEIR  HANDS  ON  THEM,  THEY  SENT  THEM 
AWAY.  SO  THEY,  BEING  SENT  FORTH  BY  THE  HOLY 

Ghost,  departed. 

The  oversight  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  plainly  seen 
in  the  very  words  here  used.  What  precision  of  terms, 
not  one  useless  phrase  or  needless  adjective;  no  su¬ 
perfluous  suggestion  to  divert  the  reader  from  the 
one  lesson  God  would  teach!  How  majestic  the 
march  of  the  narrative !  How  rapid  and  resolute  the 
onward  movement !  What  an  impact  of  impression ! 
A  hundred  words  in  the  English,  standing  for  but 


54 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


eighty  in  the  terse  Greek,  put  on  eternal  record  one 
of  the  grandest  lessons  that  God  ever  taught  His 
people  about  the  work  of  missions.  Well  may  we 
ask  for  the  open  ear  and  the  teachable  spirit,  that  we 
may  learn. 

All  the  surroundings  comport  with  the  august 
solemnity  of  the  occasion.  It  is  Antioch,  the  Syrian 
capital,  the  first  gentile  centre  of  Christianity.  It  is 
a  season  of  worship,  with  fasting  and  prayer.  At 
least  five  of  the  early  prophets  and  teachers  were 
there,  for  they  are  mentioned  by  name.  While  this 
devout  assembly  draws  near  to  the  secret  place  where 
God  dwells,  the  Holy  Spirit,  no  doubt  in  an  audible 
voice,  through  one  or  more  of  those  prophet  teachers, 
says : 

“  Separate  Me  Barnabas  and  Saul 
For  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them!” 

That  was  the  signal  for  the  birth  hour  of  foreign 
missions,  the  true  nativity,  of  which  Christ’s  Ascension 
message  of  ten  years  before  was  the  annunciation. 
Every  circumstance  and  detail  is  precious,  for  it  is  a 
presage  of  things  to  come,  a  forerunner  to  guide  the 
Church  to  the  end  of  the  age.  God  says,  “  Write  the 
vision  and  make  it  plain  upon  the  tablets  set  up  along 
the  highway  of  missions,  that  even  by  a  cursory 
glance  he  that  runneth  may  read.”  All  true  mis¬ 
sionaries,  most  of  all  pioneers  in  mission  work, 
always  have  been  and  always  will  be,  those  whom 
the  Holy  Spirit  has  singularly  separated  unto  His 
work.  Seldom,  if  ever,  has  the  Church  led  the  way 
in  setting  them  apart;  in  almost  if  not  quite  every 
case,  the  pioneers  have  led  the  Church,  and  have 
found  sometimes  their  main  hindrance  in  the  apathy, 
if  not  antipathy,  of  those  who  should  have  been 
prompt  to  encourage  and  help.  As  at  Antioch,  it 
was  not  the  Church  but  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  that 
took  the  lead  in  selecting  and  separating  the  first 
foreign  missionaries,  so,  always,  God  by  His  provi- 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  NEW  APOSTLES. 


55 


dence  and  His  Spirit  has  called  out  his  servants,  and 
the  Church  has  sent  away  those  whom  the  Spirit  had 
already  sent  forth. 

Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  in  this  earliest  of  gen¬ 
tile  Churches,  missions  to  the  gentiles  had  their 
origin.  The  five  prophet-teachers  who  there  min¬ 
istered  before  the  Lord  stand  for  gentile  peoples. 
One  a  Cyrenian,  one  from  Cyprus,  one  perhaps  from 
Idumea,  like  Herod,  another  from  the  Cilician  gates, 
and  the  last  may  have  been  a  black  man.  When  the 
Lord  called  his  pioneers  of  missions,  he  went  out¬ 
side  of  the  sacred  circle  of  Jewish  communities  and 
turned  from  the  mother  Church  to  her  first-born  gen¬ 
tile  daughter.  And,  even  then,  had  not  the  Antio- 
chan  Church  been  fasting  and  praying,  they  might 
not  have  heard,  or  hearing  they  might  not  have 
heeded,  the  voice  of  God;  they  might  not  have  sent 
away  promptly,  if  at  all,  those  whom  the  Spirit  sepa¬ 
rated  and  called,  and  so  would  have  forfeited  that  rich 
blessing  that  within  two  years  returns  to  the  bosom 
of  the  Church  in  that  first  missionary  report ! 

In  the  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  Holy  Spirit,  if 
not  as  audibly,  not  less  surely,  has  separated  unto  Him¬ 
self  and  His  work  His  select  servants.  By  unmistak¬ 
able  signs  He  has  set  apart  His  pioneers.  But  instead 
of  a  Church  praying,  fasting,  responsive,  how  often  He 
has  found  a  Church  prayerless,  feasting,  secularized, 
corrupt.  It  is  a  sad  chapter  which  records  the 
separation  of  the  New  Apostles.  Torpor  and 
indifference,  spiritual  decay  and  death,  ridicule  and 
resistance  often  to  the  point  of  persecution,  these  holy 
men  and  women  have  found  even  within  the  “body  of 
Christ!”  Sometimes  what  should  have  been  a 
sanctuary  where  the  Spirit’s  voice  was  clearly  heard 
and  devoutly  heeded,  has  been  a  sepulchre,  where 
selfishness  wound  about  God’s  messengers  the 
cerements  of  inertia  and  would  not  loose  them  and 
let  them  go. 

This  lesson,  so  supremely  taught  in  the  inspired 


56 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES. 


narrative,  must  have  urgent  emphasis.  The  one  hope 
of  missions  is  the  faith  that  God’s  Spirit  does  select 
and  separate  unto  Himself,  call  out  from  His  Church 
and  send  forth  into  His  work,  His  own  divinely 
appointed  and  divinely  anointed  messengers. 

Such  only  can  be  the  apostles  of  missions.  For 
what  is  an  apostle,  or  missionary,  but  one  who  is 
sent!  Apostle  is  missionary  spelt  Greek-wise, 
and  missionary  is  apostle  spelt  Latin-wise.  But 
both  words  mean  one  thing:  God-sent .  Take  fast 
hold  of  this  thought,  let  it  not  go,  for  it  is  the  life  of 
missions  ;  and  our  daily  risk  is  in  losing  sight  of  it  and 
depending  on  human  argument  and  appeal  and  the 
wisdom  of  man’s  selection,  to  furnish  the  force  for  the 
field.  The  new  apostles,  like  the  old,  must  be 
selected,  separated,  sent  forth,  by  the  Spirit. 

Because  this  lesson  is  vital  to  success,  let  us  linger 
yet  longer  to  learn  it  fully.  Two  marked  passages 
of  Scripture  stand  confronting  each  other,  like  two 
pillars  that  hold  up  a  grand  arch :  one  gives  us  the 
theory,  the  other  the  practice — one  the  law,  the 
other  the  example  of  God’s  methods.  We  set  them 
side  by  side  for  comparison : 


Then  saith  Jesus  unto  His  disci¬ 
ples: 

The  harvest  truly  is  plenteous; 

But  the  labourers  are  few: 

Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of 
the  harvest. 

That  He  will  thrust  forth 
labourers 

Into  His  harvest.” 

— Matt.  ix.  37,  38. 


“  There  were  in  the  church  that  was 
at  Antioch  certain  prophets  and 
teachers  ; 

“  As  they  ministered  to  the  Lord 
and  fasted. 

The  Holy  Ghost  said: 

Separate  Me  Barnabas  and  Saul, 

For  the  work  whereunto 

I  HAVE  CALLED  THEM.” 

— Acts ,  xiii.  1-4. 


The  correspondence  here  shows  one  hand  and  de¬ 
sign  in  both ;  they  fit  each  other,  like  tenon  and  mor¬ 
tise,  ball  and  socket.  Our  Lord,  already  foreseeing 
the  harvest  field  waiting  for  seed  and  sickle,  and  the 
fewness  of  labourers  ready  to  reap,  also  foretold  us 
what  was  to  be  done.  We  are  to  resort  from  first  to 
last,  to  Prayer. 

We  face  a  vast  field  of  world-wide  need.  Where 
is  the  source  of  supplies,  and  who  shall  furnish 


I 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  NEW  APOSTLES.  67 


workers?  Do  you  answer,  they  are  to  be  found  in 
the  Church,  in  her  colleges  and  theological  halls? 
But  who  shall  choose  and  make  them  willing,  send 
them  forth  and  give  them  power?  What  if  the 
Church,  like  Sarah,  be  barren  of  offspring,  or  having 
sons  and  daughters,  be  loath  to  give  them  up  to  God? 
What  if  those  whom  the  Church  may  choose,  have 
not  the  self-sacrifice  to  go,  but  cling  to  the  easy- 
chair  of  home  comfort  and  careless  indulgence? 

Hear  the  voice  which  spake  as  never  man  spake: 
“  Pray  ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that 
He  will  send — thrust  forth — labourers  into  His  har¬ 
vest  !”  Why  are  our  eyes  thus  to  be  fixed  on  God  alone? 
Because  He  only  is  the  competent  Judge  of  who  are 
fit  for  His  work — because  He  only  can  make  them 
willing,  can  train  them  to  greater  competency  and 
higher  efficiency,  and  then  thrust  them  forth  into  the 
actual  field. 

This  is  the  law,  and  of  this  law  the  narrative 
before  us  is  both  example  and  illustration.  The 
mother  church  at  Jerusalem  was  the  natural  cradle 
of  missionaries  to  the  gentiles ;  yet  God  passes  her  by, 
and  at  the  breast  of  her  eldest  gentile  daughter  suckles 
His  first  messengers  to  the  heathen.  The  first  two 
missionaries  selected  are  neither  of  them  from  Pales¬ 
tine  :  one  is  a  Levite  from  Cyprus,  the  other  a  con¬ 
verted  persecutor  and  blasphemer  from  Cilicia. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  one  prominent  personality 
in  their  appointment.  He  spake  in  an  audible  voice 
and  named  the  very  men — declared,  “I  have  called 
them,”  and  demanded  that  they  should  be  separated 
unto  Himself.  All  that  the  Church  at  Antioch  had 
to  do  was  to  hear  and  heed  this  Voice  from  above. 
In  laying  hands  upon  them  and  sending  them  away, 
those  disciples  took  no  initiative  step,  but  followed 
where  the  Spirit  went  before,  ordaining  and  separat¬ 
ing  those  whom  He  had  first  ordained  and  separated. 
Our  last  glimpse  of  them  as  they  depart  recalls  not 
the  action  of  the  Church  but  of  the  Spirit:  “So  they 


58 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


being  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  departed.” 
Christ’s  words  thus  find  an  exact  example.  The 
Church  prays  the  Lord  of  the  Harvest,  and  takes  no 
other  step  until  He  lays  His  hand  on  the  very  men 
He  has  chosen. 

Not  only  this  history,  but  all  history,  illustrates  the 
same  law.  We  cannot  raise  up  workmen .  We  do 
not  know  God’s  chosen  men  and  women.  Our  wis¬ 
dom  is  folly;  our  steps  will  be  missteps  and  mistakes. 
We  must  resort  to  prayer.  At  our  peril  we  seek  to 
multiply  workmen  by  human  means.  God  must 
call,  select,  separate  and  send  forth,  those  whom 
He  ordains — who  hear  His  call  and  willingly  offer 
themselves;  those  on  whom  He  sets  His  seal  in  their 
conscious  calling  to  His  work  and  evident  knowledge 
of  Him,  those  who  prove  their  fitness  by  their  passion 
for  souls  and  the  fulness  of  the  Spirit — upon  such  the 
Church  may  safely  lay  hands,  commissioning  them 
with  such  authority  as  she  can  confer.  All  other 
choice  of  labourers  is  premature,  officious,  unsafe. 

This  book  of  the  Acts  opens  with  the  election  of 
an  Apostle  to  fill  out  the  original  number.  Peter  is 
here  conspicuous,  and  not  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  was 
before  the  day  of  Pentecost  had  set  this  Divine 
Leader  in  the  foreground  of  Church  history.  Of 
Matthias  we  hear  nothing  more ;  but,  later  on,  God 
in  His  own  marvellous  way  makes  choice  of  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  and  of  his  career  the  rest  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  history  is  full.  Hence  many  reverent  students 
of  the  Word  have  been  constrained  to  ask  whether,  in 
the  supplying  of  Judas’  place,  Peter  was  not  hasty, 
acting  in  advance  of  the  Spirit’s  leading;  whether 
Matthias  be  not  -an  example  of  a  man  chosen  of  men 
but  not  called  of  the  Spirit,  owned  of  men  rather 
than  recognized  of  God. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  Peter’s  course  on 
this  occasion,  no  reader  can  compare  the  first  and  the 
thirteenth  chapters  of  the  Acts  without  feeling  the 
marked  contrast.  In  one  case  the  leading  steps  are 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  NEW  APOSTLES. 


59 


obviously  human ;  in  the  other,  as  obviously  super¬ 
human;  and  while  we  must  resort  to  doubtful  tradi¬ 
tion  to  follow  Matthias  further,  Paul  was  the  most 
active  missionary  of  all  history. 

The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles  adds  emphasis  to 
this  lesson.  The  Potter  sits  at  His  wheel,  with  the 
clay  in  His  hand.  He  needs  the  earthen  vessel  to 
bear  His  name  to  the  gentiles,  and  He  moulds  it  Him¬ 
self,  and  sometimes  out  of  material  the  most  un¬ 
promising,  and  into  shapes  most  strange.  But  He 
knows  what  He  wants  and  can  use.  The  Church  has 
her  faultless  machinery  of  pulpit  and  pastorate, 
home-training  and  theological  school.  The  State 
erects  great  universities,  and  sets  running  the 
golden  wheels  of  scholarly  culture,  at  which  preside 
the  skilful  hands  of  great  educators.  But  all  these 
never  yet  moulded  one  apostle  or  turned  out  of 
human  clay  one  true  man.  The  shelves  of  man’s 
great  pottery  stand  to-day  full  of  choice  wares — pol¬ 
ished  porcelain,  hand-painted  with  oriental  designs 
and  occidental  art — brilliant  and  costly  products  of 
education,  rated  at  the  highest  market-price,  grace¬ 
ful  and  ornamental,  the  pride  of  nineteenth  century 
scholarship.  Yet,  how  often  the  Divine  Potter 
passes  them  all  by,  and  takes  instead  a  rude,  crude 
lump  of  earth  from  the  slime  pits,  full  of  flaws  and 
defects,  and  shapes  it  beneath  His  own  hand  as  He 
wills.  Then  He  puts  it  into  His  furnace,  and  in  fires 
of  hot  trial  bakes  it  into  hardness  and  firmness,  and 
glazes  it  with  an  unearthly  lustre.  Man’s  fine  .deli¬ 
cate  wares  cannot  stand  the  fire,  and  crack  with 
harsh  handling.  God’s  earthenware  may  be  called 
common,  but  hard  blows  will  not  break  it,  and  in 
fierce  flames  it  only  takes  on  a  new  glory  like  the 
face  of  Him  whom  John  saw  in  apocalyptic  vision. 

As  God  only  can  choose,  so  He  only  can  train 
missionary  apostles.  Human  schools  often  spoil, 
puffing  up  with  pride  of  learning  and  worldly  wis¬ 
dom,  self-consciousness  and  carnal  ambition.  What 


60 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES . 


an  irreverent  spirit  is  it,  that  under  the  guise  of  his¬ 
torical  and  literary  criticism  shamelessly  and  reck¬ 
lessly  treads  on  holy  ground,  unawed  by  the  burning 
bush  of  prophecy  or  the  Shekinah  glory  of  inspired 
history ;  that  puts  the  word  of  God  on  a  level  with 
Homer  and  Hesiod  and  Herodotus,  Sophocles  and 
Socrates,  Plato  and  Milton,  forgetting  that  only  the 
spiritual  man  illumined  by  the  Spirit  is  competent 
to  perceive  or  receive  the  revelation  of  the  Spirit. 
And  so  it  is  that  God  finds  humble,  uneducated  be¬ 
lievers  more  ready  to  be  taught  the  secrets  of  His 
word  and  will  than  many  of  the  foremost  scholars 
who  lean  to  their  own  understanding  and  are  wise 
in  their  own  eyes. 

Strange  indeed  are  the  theological  schools  wherein 
God  trains  His  workmen.  He  sent  Moses  into  the 
sheep  pastures  of  Midian  for  forty  years;  Elijah  into 
the  caves  of  Carmel  and  Horeb;  John  the  Baptist  into 
the  wilderness  of  Judea  ;  Saul,  for  three  years,  into  the 
solitudes  of  Arabia.  When  that  superb  Alexandrian 
orator,  Apollos,  the  Apollo  of  the  early  Church, 
needed  to  get  beyond  the  baptism  of  John  and  learn 
the  way  of  God  more  perfectly,  God  chose  two  hum¬ 
ble  disciples,  tent-makers  at  Corinth,  and  one  of  them 
a  woman;  and  their  dwelling  became  a  theological 
school,  and  Apollos  the  solitary  student.  God  has 
his  own  educators,  but  they  would  not  be  chosen  of 
man ;  and  His  own  armoury  for  His  soldiers,  but  it  is 
not  stocked  with  carnal  weapons. 

As  our  studies  in  the  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
thus  compel  us  to  become  familiar  with  the  new 
apostles,  no  fact  is  more  conspicuous  than  this  fact 
and  law  of  a  divine  selection — all  the  great  pioneers 
and  leaders  of  modern  missions  have  been  eminently 
God-appointed  and  God-anointed.  Again  we  put 
this  fact  boldly  to  the  front — the  Church  has  not  led 
the  way  in  their  choice,  but  they  have  often,  if  not 
always,  led  the  Church.  Had  the  Church  chosen,  they 
would  not  have  been  selected,  for  some  of  them  have 


THE  CALLING  OF  THE  NE  W  APOSTLES. 


61 


been  a  century  in  advance  of  their  own  times,  derided 
as  fanatics  and  fools,  apostates  of  the  anvil,  the  plough 
and  the  loom.  God  has  first  trained  them  in  His  own 
secret  schools,  equipped  them  with  weapons  forged 
in  the  trial  fires,  then  called  them  out  from  a  reluctant 
and  hostile  body;  and  not  a  few  of  them  have  lived 
and  wrought  and  died  unrecognized  as  God’s  great 
ones. 

This  lesson  can  be  learned  only  by  examples,  and 
it  should  be  well  learned,  for  it  bears  upon  the  com¬ 
ing  age  of  missions.  And  here,  again,  we  meet  in 
our  study  of  this  grand  theme  an  embarrassment  of 
riches.  The  names  of  the  consecrated  men  and 
women  who  belong  to  this  new  age  of  missions  must 
be  numbered  by  hundreds,  by  thousands.  To  pay  even 
a  passing  tribute  to  all,  we  must  use  only  the  most  gen¬ 
eral  terms ;  and  many  of  the  most  eminent  yet  survive, 
and  delicacy  if  not  decorum  forbids  that  the  story  of 
their  heroism  should  now  be  written ;  for  there  is  an 
anointing  which  befits  only  burial,  and  the  spices  con¬ 
secrated  for  embalming  the  dead  are  desecrated  when 
used  for  anointing  the  living.  It  seems  best  therefore 
to  choose  a  few  representative  examples  from  those 
who  in  some  department  have  been  pioneers  and  whose 
earthly  record  is  complete. 

The  study  of  missionary  biography  reveals  a  true 
and  remarkable  * 6  apostolic  succession.  ’  ’  Missions  are 
so  vital  to  Church  life  that  probably  should  they  wholly 
cease  the  Church  itself  would  die.  Never  since  the 
day  of  Pentecost  has  Christ  been  without  witnesses. 
The  dark  ages  were  a  millennium  of  death,  yet  the 
lamp  of  testimony,  burning  however  faintly,  never 
went  out.  No  century  or  generation  has  been  with¬ 
out  its  missionaries;  and  these  lives  have  so  been 
linked  together,  that,  since  the  first  link  was  forged 
amid  the  white-heat  of  Pentecostal  fires,  this  grand 
succession  has  continued,  without  one  break  or  mis¬ 
sing  link  in  the  chain.  Who  can  fail  to  see  God’s 
hand  in  all  this?  At  the  same  time,  in  different  lands, 


62 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


without  knowledge  of  each  other,  messengers  have 
been  preparing  to  work  side  by  side  in  the  great  har¬ 
vest  field ;  or  at  different  times  raised  up  so  as  to  keep 
up  the  succession. 


II. 


THE  NEW  PIONEERS. 

Raimundus  Lullius — Pioneer  to  the  Mohammedans. 

1236-1315. 

To  find  the  pioneer  missionary  to  the  Moslem 
field,  we  must  go  back  more  than  six  and  a  half 
centuries  before  Keith  Falconer  fell  at  Aden,  to  that 
young  noble  of  Majorca,  born  in  Palma  in  1236.  He 
was  trained  as  a  soldier,  and  thirty  years  of  his  life 
were  wasted,  not  in  frivolity  only  but  in  sensuality,  in 
scandalous  excesses.  Even  his  scholarly  culture  and 
philosophical  mind,  like  those  of  Augustine  before 
him,  were  only  like  polished  bow  and  arrow  without 
practical  purpose  or  unselfish  love  to  give  them  ser¬ 
viceableness. 

But  God  had  for  this  prodigal  son  a  grander  career. 
While  writing  a  song  for  the  siren  of  lust,  he  had 
a  vision  of  the  Crucified,  which  left  upon  his  soul 
not  only  its  impress  but  its  image.  The  Captain  of 
the  Lord’s  Host  laid  hold  of  the  trumpet  that  hung 
idle  and  useless  on  the  walls  of  society,  blew  a  blast 
upon  it,  waked  it  to  music  and  turned  it  to  a  warrior’s 
bugle.  The  grace  that  changed  the  poet  of  passion 
into  a  saint,  made  the  saint  a  servant  of  Christ  and  a 
witness  to  a  lost  world.  Born  in  1236,  he  had  from 
his  cradle  heard  the  story  of  the  crusades.  He 
conceived  the  noble  purpose  of  beginning  a  new 
crusade  against  Saracen  infidels,  not  by  force  of  arms 
to  rescue  the  Saviour’s  sepulchre  from  profane  hands, 
but  by  prevailing  prayer  and  preaching  of  good 
tidings  to  lead  the  followers  of  the  false  prophet  to 
bow  before  Christ’s  cross  and  worship  at  His  empty 
tomb. 


63 


64 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


He  suddenly  renounced  the  world  and  its  pleasures, 
divided  his  estate  among  kinsmen  and  friends,  took 
the  Franciscan  garb,  and  went  into  solitude  to 
prepare  for  his  sacred  mission.  He  studied  phil¬ 
osophy,  theology  and  the  ancient  tongues.  Learning 
Arabic  from  a  slave,  he  made  himself  familiar  with 
the  works  of  Averroes — the  Moorish  Aristotle  of 
Cordova — and  other  Moorish  writers,  and  so  derived 
the  germ  of  that  system  of  dialectics  unfolded  in 
his  “ Ars  Magna”  whereby  he  hoped  to  reform 
science  and  make  converts  to  Christianity. 

The  rest  of  his  life  was  one  long  and  toilsome  pil¬ 
grimage  after  the  moving  pillar.  Old  habits  of  sin, 
like  Pharaoh’s  hosts  in  pursuit  of  Israel,  would  have 
drawn  him  back  into  bondage,  but  he  dared  a  Red 
Sea  of  blood  for  the  sake  of  following  the  “  vision.” 
Like  the  young  Count  at  Halle,  he  had  covenanted 
with  God:  “To  thee,  O  Lord  God,  I  offer  myself, 
my  wife,  my  children,  and  all  that  I  possess;”  and  be¬ 
ing  free  from  all  worldly  hindrances  he  gave  himself 
unreservedly  to  missionary  service.  Part  of  his  plan 
for  bringing  unbelievers  to  accept  the  truth  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  was  to  establish  missionary  training  colleges, 
where  young  men  might  be  taught  Arabic  and  other 
tongues ;  for  his  was  no  petty  ambition ;  he  aspired 
to  nothing  less  than  to  surround  and  subjugate  the 
whole  Moslem  territory  in  Christ’s  name.  There  is 
something  sublime  in  this  solitary  man,  moving  the 
King  of  Aragon  to  establish  at  Palma  a  monastery  to 
educate  monks  as  missionaries,  and  spending  years  in 
fruitless  but  tireless  endeavour  to  kindle  in  successive 
popes  and  kings  an  enthusiasm  like  unto  his  own. 
Then,  nothing  daunted,  crowning  all  else  by  going 
himself  into  Moslem  territory  to  preach  Christ — he 
was  the  first  of  the  missionary  martyrs  to  die  for  the 
sake  of  the  Dark  Continent. 

Those  who  doubt  the  romance  of  missions  should 
read  the  story,  more  fascinating  than  any  fiction,  of 
this,  the  first  and  greatest  of  missionaries  to  the  Mo- 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


65 


hammedans,  and  deservedly  wearing  the  title  of  the 
“  greatest  missionary  orator  of  history,”  whose  work, 
on  “Divine  Contemplation,”  ranks  with  the  Confes¬ 
sions  of  Augustine,  the  Meditations  of  Thomas  a 
Kempis,  or  Bunyan’s  “  Grace  Abounding.”  Follow 
this  Spaniard,  pleading  with  kings  to  found  training 
schools  for  Franciscan  missionaries,  and  with  the 
“Vicars  of  Christ  ”  to  decree  missionary  institutes 
and  lead  on  the  new  crusade.  Then  see  him  in  1292, 
just  five  centuries  before  that  famous  meeting  at 
Kettering  when  the  first  Baptist  missionary  society 
led  the  way,  himself  landing  in  Tunis,  daring  to  go 
defenceless  and  alone  to  win  converts  where  prosely- 
tism  was  a  crime,  and  conversion  was  apostasy,  and 
both  punishable  with  death. 

Scarcely  had  he  broached  his  design,  when  he  was 
cast  into  prison  and  then  driven  out  of  the  country. 
He  returned  to  Europe  for  aid,  and  again  unsuccess¬ 
ful,  went  back  to  Africa  in  1307,  though  threatened 
with  stoning,  and,  at  Bougiah,  employed  his  “  great 
art  ”  in  an  argument  with  a  learned  Mohammedan 
undercover  of  an  inquiry  into  the  truth  of  Islamism. 
His  real  design  was  detected,  and  he  escaped  death 
only  through  his  antagonist’s  intercession.  Again 
in  prison,  he  wrote  there  a  defence  of  Christianity, 
and  compelled  even  his  foes  to  respect  the  fanatical 
philosopher  who  risked  life  itself  for  the  sake  of  his 
faith  and  his  mission. 

He  was  a  second  time  deported,  and  at  seventy 
years  of  age  we  find  him  on  a  tour  of  the  chief 
cities  of  Europe,  like  another  Peter,  the  Hermit, 
preaching  his  crusade  and  declaring,  “  God  wills  it!” 
Once  more  unsuccessful,  with  a  zeal  that  no  dis¬ 
couragement  could  quench  or  even  dampen,  in  1314, 
at  seventy-eight  years  of  age,  this  grand  old  hero 
once  more  crossed  the  Mediterranean  to  Bougiah, 
and  there,  in  his  eightieth  year,  met  death,  like  the 
first  martyr,  by  stoning. 

Whatever  his  faults  or  fanaticism,  he  had  an  iron 


66 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


resolution  and  chivalric  ardor  seldom  equalled,  and 
on  the  scroll  of  missionary  history  the  name  of  this 
noble  of  Palma  has  a  grand  record.  Dr.  George 
Smith  says  of  him;  “  No  church,  papal  or  reformed, 
has  produced  a  missionary  so  original  in  plan,  so 
ardent  and  persevering  in  execution,  so  varied  in 
gifts,  so  inspired  by  the  love  of  Christ,  as  this  saint 
of  seventy-nine,  whom  Mohammedans  stoned  to 
death  on  the  30th  of  June,  1315.  In  an  age  of  vio¬ 
lence  and  faithlessness,  he  was  the  apostle  of 
heavenly  love.”  Let  this  motto  from  his  own  great 
book  be  adopted  by  all  his  true  successors: 

“  He  who  loves  not,  lives  not ; 

He  who  lives  by  the  Life,  cannot  die.’* 


Francis  Xavier — Romish  Apostle  to  the  Indies. 

1506-1552. 

Five  centuries  stretch  between  Lull  and  Carey,  and 
few  are  the  missionary  names  that  history  meanwhile 
records,  but  sufficient  to  preserve  the  succession  un¬ 
broken  and  show  that  God  always  has  true  children 
to  become  the  seed  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  Reformation  period  was  not  one  of  missionary 
activity:  from  the  days  of  the  Bohemian  martyr  to 
those  of  the  Florentine,  the  reformers  did  little  more 
than  purge  the  Church  of  false  doctrine ;  but  the  Re¬ 
formation  moved  the  Romish  Church  to  aggressive 
measures,  and  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  fruits  of 
mediaeval  missions  was  Francis  Xavier,  the  apostle 
to  the  Indies. 

This  remarkable  and  unique  man,  born  in  1506, 
was  in  youth  tainted  by  association  with  Protestant 
“  heretics”  but  was,  by  Ignatius  Loyola,  founder  of 
the  Jesuit  order,  saved  from  these  “  deplorable  dan¬ 
gers.”  At  forty-six  he  died  on  the  Island  of  San- 
cian,  or  St.  John,  off  the  coast  of  China,  in  1552. 
But  what  an  all-consuming  flame  burned  in  his 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


67 


bosom  during  those  last  ten  years  and  set  the  Orient 
aglow ! 

He  was  misguided,  no  doubt;  but  no  other  life, 
since  Paul’s,  has  shown  such  ardour  and  fervour,  such 
absorbing  zeal  for  the  greater  glory  of  God,  such 
self-forgetting,  self-denying  passion  for  the  souls  of 
men,  as  that  of  the  young  Saint  of  Navarre,  whose 
withered  relics  are  still  adored  in  the  Church  of 
Bom  Jesus  at  Goa. 

It  was  not  until  1542,  ten  years  before  his  death, 
that  the  Jesuit  missionary  landed  in  Portuguese 
India.  Yet  what  labors  abundant  crowded  that 
decade !  For  three  years  he  toiled  in  Southern 
India;  for  nearly  three  more,  in  the  Chinese  Arch¬ 
ipelago  ;  and  the  last  four  were  given  to  India  and 
Japan. 

To  the  doctrine  of  free  grace,  unconsciously  im¬ 
bibed  in  boyhood,  he  owed  his  genuine  experience  of 
faith  in  Christ,  his  strong  hold  upon  Him,  and  the 
inspiration  of  an  unselfish  purpose.  To  his  Papal 
and  Jesuit  training  we  trace  that  admixture  of  con¬ 
fidence  in  outward  rites  and  good  works  which  al¬ 
loyed  and  vitiated  his  otherwise  superb  service.  To 
sprinkle  holy  water  in  baptism,  to  recite  the  creed 
and  a  few  prayers,  limited  his  methods  and  measured 
his  success.  His  preaching  practically  knew  noth¬ 
ing  of  the  purging  away  of  sin  by  intelligent  faith 
in  the  atoning  blood.  He  said,  “  feci  cliristianos" — 
“  I  make  Christians”;  and  it  is  not  strange  if  the 
disciples  he  made  often  shocked  their  “ maker”  by 
glaring  vices  and  flagrant  sins. 

He  mastered  no  oriental  language,  and  was  often 
without  an  interpreter;  sometimes,  as  among  the  pearl 
fishers  of  Tuticorin,  he  was,  as  he  himself  felt,  but 
an  adept  in  a  dumb  show,  an  actor  in  a  pantomime. 
His  was  the  gospel  of  sacraments  ^nd  ceremonies, 
preached  in  mute  action,  but  with  what  lofty  enthu¬ 
siasm!  To  baptize  a  new-born  babe  would  save  a 
soul;  to  mumble  a  few  prayers  would  deliver  from 


68 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


purgatory;  and  so  he  went  on  with  wild  passion  for 
numbers,  carrying  the  counting  of  converts  to  the 
last  extreme  of  error  and  absurdity.  It  was  the  last¬ 
ing  warning  against  that  mechanical  theory  which 
gauges  the  success  of  missions  by  numerical  results. 

In  one  month,  in  Travancore,  he  baptized  ten  thou¬ 
sand  natives,  and  at  the  close  of  his  ten  years’  work 
reckoned  his  converts  by  the  million.  In  fact,  with 
an  ambition  that  knew  no  bounds,  he  planned  the 
conversion  of  the  whole  Empire  of  the  Rising  Sun, 
and  wanted  only  time  enough  to  Christianize  the 
Orient. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  all  these  drawbacks,  this 
Jesuit  fanatic  puts  to  shame  all  who  read  the  story  of 
his  life,  by  the  utter  self-abnegation  he  exhibited. 
The  man  who  on  ship-board  could  night  and  day  de¬ 
vote  himself  to  watching  over  and  nursing  a  crew  sick 
with  the  scurvy,  himself  bathing  their  disgusting 
bodies  and  washing  their  filthy  clothes;  who  could 
suffer  the  pangs  of  hunger,  famishing  himself  to  feed 
the  starving;  who  could,  unresting,  make  journeys 
over  thousands  of  miles  without  care  or  thought  as  to 
personal  comfort;  who  could  cheerfully  forsake  the 
paths  of  indulgence  and  scholarship  for  one  perpetual 
pilgrimage  amid  the  sickening  sights  and  stifling 
air  of  oriental  heathenism ;  who  could,  on  God’s  altar 
lay  himself,  with  his  brilliant  mind  and  prospects 
of  preferment,  with  youth,  wealth,  worldly  ambition, 
all  tempting  him  to  self-seeking — and  know  only  the 
glory  of  God — such  a  man  cannot  be  simply  set  aside 
as  a  fool  or  a  fanatic.  If  his  mistaken  zeal  for  Papal 
supremacy  caused  Japan  to  seal  her  sea-gates  to  all 
foreign  approach  for  two  and  a  half  centuries,  on 
the  other  hand  his  consecrated  earnestness  has  lit  a 
flame  of  devotion  to  Christ  in  hundreds  who  have 
wept  over  the  story  of  his  heroism. 

Xavier  might  have  chosen  any  career  however  illus¬ 
trious,  and  success  would  have  had  his  crown  ready. 
When  at  twenty-four,  he  was  graduated  at  the  college 


THE  NEW  PIONEERS. 


69 


of  St.  Barbara  in  Paris  as  master  of  philosophy,  and 
licensed  to  lecture  upon  Aristotle;  when  he  taught 
with  applause  at  the  College  of  Beauvais,  and  in  the 
Sorbonne  gained  the  title  of  “  doctor,”  he  was  like  a 
new  star  rising  on  the  firmament  of  European  civiliza¬ 
tion,  and  men  asked  whereunto  his  fame  might  not 
reach.  But  on  August  15,  1534,  he  with  five  others, 
led  by  Loyola,  took  their  vows  in  the  chapel  of  Mont¬ 
martre,  and  from  that  time  he  never  swerved  nor 
looked  back.  After  his  ordination  as  priest,  he 
went  to  Bologna,  and  there  in  his  preaching  and  visits 
to  hospitals  and  prisons,  evinced  such  apostolic  zeal  and 
love,  that  he  seemed  a  combination  of  Peter  and  Paul 
and  John  in  one;  and,  when  missionaries  were  in 
demand  for  Portuguese  settlements  in  the  Indies,  he 
was  one  of  the  first  two  selected.  Bell  in  hand,  he 
went  through  the  streets  of  Goa  calling  upon  Christian 
inhabitants  to  send  children  and  slaves  to  be  taught 
the  true  faith;  went  to  the  coast  of  Cormorin  and 
the  island  of  Ceylon,  and  many  other  parts  of  the 
East,  reviving  the  dead  faith  of  nominal  Christians, 
and  gathering  flourishing  congregations  which  he 
left  in  the  care  of  his  disciples,  himself  pressing  on¬ 
ward  to  the  regions  beyond.  Intrepidly  he  met  the 
intrigues  and  violence  of  Japanese  priests,  publicly  dis¬ 
puted  with  the  bonzes,  and  won  many  from  the 
cultured  classes;  so  that,  on  returning  to  Goa  in  1551, 
he  left  three  great  princes  of  the  empire  as  con¬ 
verts  and  vast  numbers  of  baptized  disciples  from 
the  humbler  ranks.  He  meant  to  pierce  the  Chinese 
wall  of  exclusion;  and  when  the  fatal  fever  laid  hold 
upon  him  he  could  only  look  toward  the  Walled 
Kingdom,  and  cry,  “O  rock!  rock!  when  wilt  thou 
open  to  my  Master?”  During  these  ten  years  this 
Romish  “apostle”  had  planted  the  cross  “in  fifty-two 
different  kingdoms,  had  preached  through  nine 
thousand  miles  of  territory,  and  baptized  over  one 
million  persons.”  In  visions  of  the  night  when  he 
saw  the  world  conquered  for  Christ,  he  would  spring 


70 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


up  shouting,  “  Yet  more,  O  my  God,  yet  more!” 
and  his  whole  life  was  a  commentary  on  his  own 
motto : 

“  Ad  Majorem  Dei  Gloriam.” 


John  Eliot — Apostle  to  the  North  American 

Indians.  1604-1690. 

Like  Ziegenbalg  and  Zinzendorf,  properly  belong¬ 
ing  to  the  century  before  Carey,  Eliot  was  one  of 
those  who  formed  the  mould  in  which  modern  mis¬ 
sions  took  shape.  He  was  a  pioneer  of  pioneers, 
and  history  has  yet  to  give  him  his  true  niche  in  her 
Westminster.  His  period  nearly  spans  the  seven¬ 
teenth  century,  and  three  features  are  conspicuous 
in  his  personality:  first,  a  pious  parentage  with  its 
rich  legacy  of  character;  secondly,  his  connection 
with  the  Puritan  exile,  Thomas  Hooker,  whom  he 
followed  to  the  New  World;  and  thirdly,  his  absorb¬ 
ing  passion  for  the  souls  of  the  red  men.  For  sixty 
years  he  filled  his  sole  pastorate  at  Roxbury,  from  this 
centre  radiating  influence  over  a  wider  sphere  of 
effort. 

A  forecast  of  his  work  was  seen  in  his  early  apti¬ 
tude  for  language.  At  nineteen,  graduated  from 
Cambridge,  he  had  already  mastered  the  original 
languages  of  the  Bible,  and  shown  unusual  skill  as  a 
grammarian  and  philologist.  At  thirty-five,  the 
colonial  leaders  chose  him  to  aid  in  the  new  version 
of  the  Psalter,  and  his  “  Bay  Psalm  Book  ”  was  the 
first  book  printed  in  America. 

He  had  barely  taken  up  his  pastoral  staff  at  Rox¬ 
bury  when  his  unselfish  love  was  drawn  out  toward 
the  Indians.  Through  a  young  Pequot,  he  got  hold 
of  their  strange  tongue,  and  in  1646,  in  Chief 
Waban’s  wigwam  preached  the  first  sermon  in  their 
language  ever  known  on  American  soil.  This 
memorable  service  in  camp,  near  Brighton,  lasted 


THE  NE IV  PIONEERS. 


71 


three  hours.  A  new  camp-fire  was  kindled,  and  the 
spirit  of  religious  inquiry  began  to  burn.  Two 
weeks  later,  a  second  visit  found  an  old  warrior 
weeping  lest  it  should  be  too  late  to  find  God ;  and  a 
fortnight  after,  Waban  himself  was  found  talking  to 
his  followers  of  the  strange  story  of  the  cross,  in  face 
of  fierce  opposition  from  the  Indian  priests. 

What,  two  hundred  years  after  him,  William  Duncan 
did  in  his  “  Metlakahtla,”  Eliot  did  in  his  “Nonan- 
tum,”  five  miles  west  of  Boston — building  a  model 
state  for  his  ‘ 6  praying  Indians,”  who  as  such  became 
known  in  history,  like  Cromwell’s  “Ironsides.”  The 
Roxbury  pastor,  aflame  with  holy  passion  to  civilize 
and  Christianize  these  wild  men  of  the  forest,  organ¬ 
ized  his  converts  into  a  commonwealth,  with  civil 
courts,  social  and  industrial  improvements  and  re¬ 
ligious  institutions. 

No  circle  of  ten  miles  diameter  could  fence  in 
such  a'man.  Neponset,  Concord,  Brookfield,  Pawn- 
tucket,  felt  his  power,  and  from  all  quarters  came 
clamorous  appeals  for  new  law-codes,  Bible  institu¬ 
tions  and  Christian  teachers.  Chiefs  and  their  sons 
became  converts,  and  then  leaders ;  and,  when  Eliot's 
visits  involved  risk  to  him,  the  sachem  and  his  brave 
warriors  became  his  escort ;  while  fearless,  if  not  heed¬ 
less  of  danger,  alone  on  horseback,  he  dared  perils 
and  bore  privations  for  Christ’s  sake. 

Not  only  were  snares  of  death  laid  for  him  by  hos¬ 
tile  and  treacherous  chiefs,  but  his  own  countrymen, 
not  content  to  withhold  aid,  pitilessly  pelted  him 
with  the  hail  of  ridicule,  or  hurled  at  him  the  mud- 
clods  of  aspersion;  they  made  him  the  butt  of  jest  as 
a  trader  in  fables,  or  charged  him  with  selfish  greed. 
But  God  “stepped  in  and  helped.”  Before  the  cen¬ 
tury  had  reached  its  noon,  his  work  had  won  a 
double  victory;  for  it  had  both  conquered  the  Indian 
and  compelled  recognition  from  Britain.  Devout 
souls,  across  the  sea,  heard  the  fame  of  his  deeds  and 
felt  the  flame  of  his  zeal ;  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that, 


72 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


more  than  half  a  century  before  the  “  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,”  a  similar  organization 
was  formed  to  propagate  the  gospel  in  New  Eng¬ 
land,  and  sent  fifty  pounds  a  year  to  the  Noncon¬ 
formist  exile  at  Roxbury. 

Like  Livingstone,  Eliot  was  a  missionary  general 
and  statesman.  In  1650,  he  gathered  most  of  his 
converted  Indians  into  “  Natick,”  a  tract  of  six 
thousand  acres  on  the  Charles  River,  where  each 
family  had  a  house-lot,  where  large  buildings  were 
erected  for  church  and  school,  and  where  distin¬ 
guished  visitors  heard  Eliot’s  praying  Indians  teach 
and  preach.  The  evangelist  and  statesman  now  be¬ 
came  also  theological  professor,  training  a  native 
ministry — that  secret  of  the  perpetuity  of  all  mis¬ 
sion  work.  He  who  had  toiled  for  thirty-eight  years 
to  gather  about  thirty-six  hundred  converted  Indians 
into  fourteen  settlements  in  1671,  left  twenty-four 
native  preachers  behind  him  when  he  died  in  1-690. 

This  versatile  man  was  not  only  preacher  and 
pastor,  general  and  statesman,  founder  of  model  set¬ 
tlements  and  trainer  of  native  evangelists;  he  was 
also  a  translator.  In  1661  the  New  Testament,  and 
two  years  later  the  Old  Testament,  were  published 
in  the  native  tongue;  and  so  that  famous  Indian 
Bible,  which  has  now  not  one  living  reader,  was  the 
first  Bible  printed  west  of  the  Atlantic.  As  Bayard 
Taylor  said  of  Humboldt — it  is  “not  a  ruin  but  a 
pyramid,”  no  mere  lonely  relic  of  the  past  for 
the  curious  antiquary,  but  a  grand  structure  from 
whose  lofty  apex  the  red  man  got  a  glimpse  of  the 
City  of  God;  and  it  is  still  a  pillar  of  witness,  testifying 
to  one  of  God’s  kings  who,  against  such  odds,  builded 
this  monument  to  the  glory  of  God!  Both  as  a 
memorial  of  holy  zeal  and  as  a  testimony  to  fine 
scholarship,  it  merits  what  Edward  Everett  said  of  it, 
that  “  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  contains 
no  example  of  resolute,  untiring  labour  superior  to 
it.”  Eliot  likewise  created  for  his  beloved  children 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


n 

of  the  forest  a  new  Christian  literature,  translating 
such  practical  guides  as  “  Baxter’s  Call,”  and  pre¬ 
paring  catechism  and  psalter  to  follow  grammar 
and  primer.  When  age  and  weakness  kept  him  at 
home,  and  he  could  not  go  to  his  Indians,  he  besought 
families  to  send  to  him  their  negro  servants  that  he 
might  teach  them  saving  truth. 

Southey  pronounced  John  Eliot  “one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  men  of  any  country and  Richard  Bax¬ 
ter  said  there  was  “  no  other  man  whom  he  honoured 
above  him.”  We  claim  for  him  a  certain  priority  of 
pedigree  in  this  apostolic  succession.  In  a  peculiar 
sense  he  was,  on  this  side  the  sea,  father  and  founder 
of  modern  missions ;  for  it  was  his  life  and  work  that 
moved  and  moulded  David  Brainerd,  James  Brainerd 
Taylor,  Jonathan  Edwards,  Adoniram  Judson,  as  also 
William  Carey  and  others  who  followed  him.  Yet 
this  stream  of  holy  influence  which  watered  so  many 
trees  of  life,  Eliot  himself  traces  to  its  spring  in  the 
home  of  Hooker.  “When  I  came  into  this  blessed 
family,”  said  he,  “I  saw  as  never  before  the  power 
of  godliness  in  its  lively  vigour  and  efficiency.”  What 
a  lesson  in  living !  Eliot  held  for  a  time  the  position 
of  usher  in  Hooker’s  grammar  school,  and  the  family 
piety  he  saw  exhibited  there  led  to  his  conversion  and 
consecration.  Thus  do  the  streams  whose  fountains 
are  beneath  the  Temple  of  God  flow  softly  through 
their  hidden  channels,  and  come  up  to  the  surface, 
from  time  to  time,  in  some  Siloam  basin  or  Bethesda 
pool.  Hooker  reappears  in  Eliot,  Eliot  in  Edwards, 
Edwards  in  Carey,  Carey  in  Judson,  and  so  on  without 
end. 

The  last  words  on  John  Eliot’s  lips  were  “Welcome, 
joy !”  and  were  probably  the  response  of  the  depart¬ 
ing  soul  to  the  vision  of  bliss  which  glorified  his  dying 
moments.  But  there  is  a  brief  sentence  written  at 
the  end  of  his  Indian  grammar  which  is  the  key  to 
the  lock  of  his  life,  furnishing  at  once  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  the  man  and  the  revelation  of  his  secret.  As 


74 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


I  stood,  in  1893,  by  the  simple  slab  of  stone  that  in 
a  Boston  burial-ground  bears  his  name,  that  sentence 
seemed  a  fit  motto  for  all  true  missions : 

PRAYER  AND  PAINS 
THROUGH  FAITH  IN  JESUS  CHRIST 
WILL  DO  ANYTHING.” 


Baron  Justinian  Ernst  Von  Welz — Pioneer  to 

Dutch  Guiana. 

The  roots  of  modern  missions  reach  back  to  the 
Reformation,  and  the  plant  that  hangs  with  such 
abundant  fruit  is  at  least  four  centuries  old.  But 
much  of  this  growth  was  below  the  surface;  and  a 
distinct  and  definite  line  marks  the  last  hundred 
years  as  the  period  of  organized  missionary  effort. 

Luther,  and  his  fellow  reformers,  revived  primitive 
apostolic  faith,  which  must  be  the  precursor  and 
prepare  the  way  if  apostolic  life  and  work  are  to 
follow.  The  Church  must  always  be  evangelical 
before  it  is  evangelistic.  Soon  after  the  reformed 
faith  had  laid  hold  upon  the  convictions  of  God’s 
people,  the  debt  of  duty  to  a  lost  race  began  loudly  to 
demand  payment,  and  the  Reformed  Church  felt  the 
movings  of  a  new  impulse  to  spread  the  good  tidings 
far  and  wide.  But,  after  a  thousand  years  of  inaction, 
of  spiritual  sloth  and  sleep,  apathy  and  lethargy 
loose  their  hold  slowly,  as  the  ice-bonds  of  an  arctic 
winter  yield  to  the  summer  sun.  Here  and  there 
one  man  was  reached  and  roused,  his  eyes  opening  to 
the  fact  that  millions  were  dying  without  the  gospel ; 
his  ears  opening  to  the  cry  of  want  and  woe  which, 
like  the  moan  and  sob  of  waves  on  the  sea-shore,  tells 
of  storm  and  wreck.  Now  and  then  a  man  went  forth, 
while  as  yet  the  Church  as  a  whole  seemed  locked  in 
icy  indifference  and  insensibility. 

Von  Welz;  who  belongs  before  Spener,  Francke 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


75 


and  Zinzendorf,  is  one  of  the  precursors  of  the  coming 
era  of  missions.  About  1664  he  issued  his  invitation 
for  a  society  of  Jesus,  to  promote  Christianity  and 
the  conversion  of  heathendom ;  and  the  same  year, 
another  manifesto  of  like  purport  which,  like  Carey’s 
Inquiry  into  the  Obligations  of  Christians,  a  hundred 
years  later,  turned  a  powerful  search-light  upon  the 
superficial  piety  of  his  day  and  laid  bare  its  hollowness 
and  shallowness. 

There  is  something  grand  in  this  solitary  man, 
blowing  upon  God’s  silver  trumpet  a  solemn  alarm 
to  set  in  motion  the  camps.  No  such  voice  had  be¬ 
fore  been  heard  in  the  Reformed  Church,  but  it 
awakened  no  sympathetic  responsive  echo.  Those 
“light  words,”  which  are  the  “Devil’s  keenest 
swords,”  pierced  him  again  and  again.  Unsparing 
ridicule  and  contemptuous  opposition  swept  over 
him,  but  only  to  fix  deeper  the  roots  of  his  holy  pur¬ 
pose,  as  storms  fasten  the  cedars  to  the  rock-sides  of 
Lebanon.  Another  manifesto  still  more  searching 
succeeded:  an  appeal  to  court  preachers  and  learned 
professors  to  establish  a  college  for  training  mission¬ 
aries.  Von  Welz  joined  to  the  capacity  of  a  states¬ 
man  and  organizer,  the  enthusiasm  of  a  zealot,  the 
persistency  of  a  born  leader,  and  the  courage  of  a 
warrior.  Because  he  would  not  keep  silence  but 
kept  blowing  his  bugle  blast  in  men’s  ears,  summon¬ 
ing  the  sleeping  Church  to  propagate  the  faith  among 
unbelieving  peoples,  he  was  laughed  at  as  a  dreamer 
and  fanatic,  and  denounced  as  a  hypocrite,  heretic 
and  blasphemer.  Dr.  Ursinus,  severer  in  rebuke 
than  Ryland  was  with  Carey,  prayed,  concerning  the 
proposed  Jesus- Association,  “protect  us  from  it, 
dear  Lord  God,”  as  though  the  proposed  missionary 
society  and  training  college  were  to  be  classed  with 
those  malicious  and  seditious  schemes  from  which 
the  litany  implores,  “Good  Lord,  deliver  us.”  The 
famous  doctor  of  Ratisbon  regarded  the  heathen  as 
dogs  to  whom  we  are  not  to  give  that  which  is  holy, 


76 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


or  swine  that  will  wallow  in  the  mire  and  trample 
under  foot  the  pearls  of  the  gospel,  and  he  would 
have  given  them  over  to  work  all  uncleanness  with 
greediness. 

When  the  proposal  to  send  out  artisans  and  lay¬ 
men  to  evangelize  the  heathen  met,  like  other  ap¬ 
peals,  only  rebuff  and  ridicule,  that  heroic  soul  that 
could  not  move  others  to  action  found  relief  in  self¬ 
offering.  Ordained  an  apostle  to  the  gentiles  by 
Breckling,  a  poor  priest  in  Holland,  Von  Welz,  like 
Zinzendorf  after  him,  left  behind  his  baronetcy  and 
his  baronial  estate,  and  himself  became  the  humble 
messenger  to  Dutch  Guiana,  where  he  laid  down  his 
life.  Like  other  seers  of  God  and  prophets  of  hu¬ 
manity,  he  saw  farther  than  his  contemporaries;  and, 
had  the  bold  originality  of  his  missionary  schemes 
found  earnest  co-operation,  organized  missions  might 
have  found  in  the  soil  of  Protestant  Germany  their 
germination  at  least  a  hundred  years  before  Carey 
and  his  humble  twelve  sat  down  in  widow  Wallis* 
parlor  at  Kettering. 

Von  Welz  was  another  of  the  examples  of  which 
history  is  full,  of  great  and  extraordinary  minds  en¬ 
dowed  with  a  consciousness  of  strength,  impelled  by 
a  Divine  impulse  which  is  their  truest  and  best  ad¬ 
viser.  There  is  a  “perspicacity  of  eye ”  which  is  the 
direct  effect  of  that  mystic  anointing  with  God’s  own 
eye  salve ;  and  God’s  born  prophets  must  not  be  diso¬ 
bedient  to  the  heavenly  vision,  though  others  see  not 
the  form  and  hear  not  the  voice.  Baron  Von  Welz 
could  say  of  his  manifestos  what  Thucydides  said  of 
his  histories,  “  I  give  these  to  the  public  as  an  ever¬ 
lasting  possession,  and  not  as  a  contentious  instru¬ 
ment  of  temporary  applause.” 

Such  men  are  God’s  agitators,  sent  to  marshal 
the  conscience  of  the  Church,  to  mould  the  law  of  its 
life  and  the  methods  of  its  work  in  conformity  with 
His  word  and  will.  They  are  educators  of  the  race, 
but  too  often  they  find  dull  pupils,  that,  ever  learm 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


77 


mg,  are  never  able  to  come  to  the  full  knowledge  of 
the  truth.  To  us  it  now  seems  incredible  that  the 
Austrian  baron,  who  would  found  a  new  Jesus  so¬ 
ciety — not  a  Jesuit  order — to  rally  to  itself  those 
whom  the  love  of  Jesus  constrained  to  bear  His 
gospel  to  the  lost,  and  who  offered  the  capital  of 
30,000  thalers  as  a  fund  whose  interest  should  sup¬ 
port  the  missionaries  in  training, — should  be  met  not 
only  by  the  sneers  of  the  worldly,  but  by  the  unspar¬ 
ing  condemnation  of  leading  Churchmen;  that  John 
Heinrich  Ursinus,  superintendent  of  Ratisbon,  other¬ 
wise  an  excellent  man,  could  so  violently  oppose 
a  scheme  which  took  all  its  inspiration  from  the  New 
Testament!  Yet,  in  so  doing,  he  represented  the 
general  attitude  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  his  day. 

The  zeal  of  this  first  missionary  martyr  within  the 
Lutheran  Church,  who  found  a  grave  at  Surinam, 
may  have  flamed  with  excess  of  enthusiasm,  but 
we  cannot,  with  Plitt,  dismiss  him  as  a  ‘  ‘  missionary 
fanatic.”  His  motives  were  too  unselfish,  his  purpose 
too  lofty,  his  self-sacrifice  too  sublime,  his  appeals 
too  scriptural  and  too  spiritual,  to  be  thus  classed 
with  the  outcome  of  a  half-disordered  brain.  How 
true  it  is  that  the  madness  of  one  generation  is  the 
wisdom  of  the  next,  and  the  fanaticism  of  one  decade 
becomes  the  heroism  of  the  next !  The  men  that  are 
martyrs  to  the  hatred  and  violence  of  one  age,  are 
the  saints  that  a  succeeding  age  canonizes.  Would 
that  we  might  not  slay  God’s  prophets,  leaving  a 
wiser  generation  to  pay  its  too  tardy  tribute  at  their 
sepulchres ! 

Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg — Pioneer  to  India. 

1683-1719. 

If  we  seek  the  pioneer  in  the  East  Indies,  we  must 
go  back  beyond  Duff  and  Carey  to  those  devoted 
pietist  missionaries,  Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg  and 
Henry  Pliitschau,  who,  in  1706,  just  one  hundred 


78 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


years  before  Alexander  Duff  was  born,  landed  at 
Tranquebar. 

Ziegenbalg,  born  in  Pulsnitz,  Upper  Lusatia,  in 
1683,  and  dying  in  India,  of  cholera,  at  thirty-six, 
crowded  into  twelve  years  of  missionary  life  such 
abundant  service  as  few  of  the  most  devoted  men 
have  ever  offered  to  the  Master  on  the  altar  of  mis¬ 
sions.  Trained  at  Halle  in  theology  and  biblical 
literature,  and  ordained  at  Copenhagen  in  1705,  he 
arrived  at  Tranquebar  after  eight  months  at  sea, 
only  to  be  imprisoned  by  the  Danish  authorities. 
Unknown  to  him  and  his  fellow-student,  bv  the 
same  vessel  on  which  they  sailed,  secret  instructions 
were  despatched  by  the  Danish  East  India  Com¬ 
pany,  authorizing  the  governor  at  Tranquebar  to 
block  their  way  by  every  means  and  crush  their  mis¬ 
sion  in  the  bud.  And  the  governor  did  his  best  to 
obey  instructions. 

These  first  Protestant  missionaries  that  ever  trod 
the  soil  of  India,  had  gone  over  the  wide  seas  to  win 
a  new  empire  for  Christ,  and  as  they  stood,  on  the 
night  after  they  landed,  with  no  shelter  but  the  sky 
and  no  companions  but  the  stars,  left  by  the 
governor  to  shift  for  themselves,  a  pathetic  interest 
invests  their  loneliness.  What  a  task  before  them, 
and  what  a  welcome  to  their  new  field !  One  of  the 
governor’s  suite  took  pity  upon  them  and  they  found 
for  the  first  few  days  a  place  of  sojourn;  then  they 
were  allowed  to  occupy  a  house  upon  the  wall,  close 
by  the  heathen  quarters ;  and,  all  undaunted  by  diffi¬ 
culties,  Ziegenbalg,  six  days  after  his  landing,  was 
busy  at  Tamil,  though  he  had  neither  dictionary, 
grammar  nor  alphabet.  He  sat  down  with  native 
children,  writing  with  fingers  on  the  sand  to  learn 
the  strange  language  in  which  were  locked  up  the 
secrets  of  access  to  the  people  and  their  religion. 

By  almost  unparalleled  industry  and  application,  he 
could  in  eight  months  talk  in  Tamil.  All  day  long 
busied  with  reading  and  writing,  translating  and  re- 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


79 


citing,  he  managed  not  only  to  master  the  intricate 
construction  of  the  language,  but  to  catch  the  inflec¬ 
tion  and  tone  in  pronunciation,  so  that  in  1709, 
Tamil  was  to  him  as  his  native  German.  He  had 
now,  however,  made  only  a  start,  and  applied  him¬ 
self  to  the  making  of  a  grammar  and  two  lexicons, 
which  together  contained  nearly  60,000  words.  Be¬ 
fore  he  had  been  in  India  two  years,  the  translation 
of  the  New  Testament  was  in  progress,  and  within  a 
third  year  completed.  Then,  when  serious  illness 
hindered  other  work,  he  began  the  Old  Testament. 

Here  was  a  young  missionary  of  twenty-six,  preach¬ 
ing  in  Tamil,  and  giving  the  people  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  in  their  own  tongue.  On  the  ship  sailing 
from  Copenhagen  he  had  learned  the  broken  Portu¬ 
guese  dialect  that  all  along  the  coast  was  used  by  the 
half-breeds,  and  he  turned  this  to  good  use,  opening  a 
school  and  preaching  service  for  such  as  could  be 
reached  by  this  language;  and-the  first  fruits  of  his 
labour  were  five  converted  slaves  of  Danish  masters 
within  the  first  year  after  his  arrival,  and,  four 
months  later,  nine  adult  Hindus. 

Against  the  persistent  opposition  of  the  governor, 
and  the  failure  of  funds  to  carry  on  the  mission,  in 
1708,  Ziegenbalg  made  his  pioneer  preaching  tour 
into  the  kingdom  of  Tanjore,  and  at  Negapalam  began 
his  friendly  conferences  with  the  Brahmans.  He 
not  only  first  gave  India  a  Tamil  New  Testament 
and  vernacular  dictionaries,  but  he  set  up  the  first 
press. 

Left  alone  by  Pliitschau’s  return,  he  was  himself 
driven  home  by  sickness.  In  1715  he  suddenly  ap¬ 
peared  in  Denmark;  then  hurried  into  Germany  to 
Francke  and  Halle,  preaching  to  crowds  that  no 
church  could  hold;  then  with  his  newly  wedded  wife, 
hurrying  through  Holland  to  London,  he  went  back 
to  Tranquebar,  where  he  found  the  governor  who 
had  tyrannically  fought  him  displaced  by  a  warm 
friend  of  missions. 


80 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


For  two  years  more,  as  though  he  felt  that  death 
was  approaching,  with  almost  reckless  enthusiasm  he 
sped  toward  his  goal — the  winning  of  India  for  Christ. 
At  Christmastide,  1718,  he  preached,  but  a  week  later 
his  voice  was  so  feeble  that  he  could  scarce  be  heard, 
and  he  never  again  spoke  in  public.  On  the  last 
Sunday  his  bed  was  his  pulpit,  and  from  his  pillow 
he  exhorted  his  native  converts  to  hold  fast  the  faith. 
Soon  after  morning  prayer,  February  23,  1719,  the 
chill  of  death  was  upon  him. 

Two  scenes,  one  at  the  beginning,  the  other  at  the 
end  of  this  singularly  devoted  life,  should  be  placed 
side  by  side  for  the  lessons  they  teach.  When  his 
mother  died  she  left  to  her  children  as  her  last  legacy, 
“a  great  treasure,”  which  she  bade  them  seek  in  the 
Bible.  “  There,”  said  she,  4 4  you  will  find  it;  there 
is  not  a  page  that  I  have  not  wet  with  my  tears.” 

Ziegenbalg  was  very  young  at  the  time,  but  he 
never  forgot  the  impression  of  those  words;  and 
when  he  went  to  India,  his  mother’s  legacy  to  him 
was  the  treasure  he  sought  to  bequeath  to  his  con¬ 
verts.  And  when  about  himself  to  depart,  so  in¬ 
tense  was  the  glory  that  smote  him,  that  he  sud¬ 
denly  put  his  hands  to  his  eyes,  exclaiming,  4 ‘How 
is  it  so  bright,  as  if  the  sun  shone  full  in  my  face!” 
Soon  after,  he  asked  that  his  favourite  hymn  might  be 
sung,  “Jesus,  meine  zuversicht  ”  (my  confidence),  and 
on  the  wings  of  sacred  song  he  took  his  flight,  leaving 
behind  over  three  hundred  and  fifty  converts,  cate¬ 
chumens  and  pupils,  a  missionary  seminary  and  a 
Tamil  lexicon,  but  best  of  all  the  Tamil  Bible. 

When,  a  hundred  and  thirty-four  years  later,  Alex¬ 
ander  Duff  stood  in  the  pulpit  where  Ziegenbalg,  as 
well  as  Grundler  and  Schwartz,  so  often  told  of 
J esus,  his  heart  swelled  with  emotion.  To  him  the  Dan¬ 
ish  missionary  was,  among  all  that  had  gone  to  India, 
not  only  great,  but  6  6  first,  inferior  to  none,  scarcely 
second  to  any  that  followed  him.”  On  the  sides  of  a 
plain  altar  lay  the  dust  of  Ziegenbalg  and  Grundler, 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


81 


those  two  men  of  such  i  1  brief  but  brilliant  and  im¬ 
mortal  careers  in  the  mighty  work  of  Indian  evangeli¬ 
zation,”  whose  “  lofty  and  indomitable  spirit  breathed 
the  most  fervid  piety.”* 

As  truly  as  Ignatius  or  Huss,  Ziegenbalg  was  a 
martyr  of  Christ.  But,  as  Shelley’s  heart  was  found 
unconsumed  in  the  ashes  of  his  pyre  on  Italy’s  shore, 
the  heart  of  such  a  pioneer  is  still  the  inspiration  of 
all  later  heroism.  Whatever  property  Ziegenbalg 
had  in  himself  was  made  over  to  God,  unencumbered 
with  mortgages ;  to  him  self-denial  was  a  joy,  and  sacri¬ 
fice  was  amply  compensated  by  service.  Like  the  Maid 
of  Orleans,  he  would  “  rather  have  died  than  do  any¬ 
thing  which  was  known  to  be  contrary  to  the  will  of 
God;”  and,  like  Richard  Knill,  his  contribution  to 
missions  was  the  offering  of  himself. 

For  courageous  faith  and  patient  faithfulness,  for 
keen  insight  and  practical  wisdom,  for  untiring  indus¬ 
try  and  deep  devotion,  few  missionaries  anywhere 
have  equalled  Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg;  and  we  can¬ 
not  but  see  him  repeated  and  reproduced  in  that  most 
conspicuous  figure  in  India  during  the  eighteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  Christian  Frederick  Schwartz,  who  like  him  was 
a  German,  a  student  and  translator  in  Tamil,  ordained 
at  Copenhagen,  and  who  sailed  to  Tranquebar.  These 
two  men,  though  one  life  measured  but  half  the  other’s 
in  years,  wielded  a  power  in.  India  that  can  be  meas¬ 
ured  only  at  the  last  day. 

Hans  Egede — The  Apostle  of  Greenland. 

1686-1758. 

We  turn  now  toward  that  repellant  clime,  the  frozen 
pole,  to  find  another  example  of  one  whom  God 
called  and  thrust  forth  to  unfurl  the  flag  of  the  cross 
upon  the  ice-castles  of  the  north. 

It  was  early  in  the  last  century  that  a  humble  Dane 
who  was  the  village  pastor  in  Vaagen,  off  the 
Norway  coast,  in  the  Lifoden  Isles,  felt  oppressed 

*  Smith’s  Short  History. 


82  '  THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

with  the  woe  and  want  of  the  heathen  a  thousand 
miles  away  toward  the  pole;  and,  like  Nehemiah  at 
the  court  of  Esther,  his  face  betrayed  his  sorrow  of 
heart,  so  that  not  only  his  wife  but  his  parishioners 
sought  a  reason  for  his  troubled  looks.  His  was  a 
secret  that  could  not  be  kept.  By  a  seeming 
accident  Hans  Egede  had  read  of  the  discovery  of 
Greenland  by  Norwegian  sailors  about  the  close  of 
the  tenth  century;  of  the  successful  preaching  of  the 
gospel  among  the  rude  people  of  those  climes ;  of  the 
subsequent  ice  blockade,  and  the  black  pest  which,  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  broke  off  communication,  so 
that  for  nearly  three  centuries  these  poor  heathen 
had  been  left  to  relapse  into  darkness  without  any 
man  who  cared  for  their  souls. 

Hans  Egede  could  not  say  why  he  should  feel 
such  concern  for  those  toward  whom  no  one  else 
seemed  to  be  drawn ;  but  he  could  rest  neither  day 
nor  night  for  thinking  of  them;  and  he  ventured 
at  last  to  open  his  heart  to  his  dear  46  Gertrude.” 
But,  like  many  another,  she  found  the  home-work  a 
sufficient  apology  for  staying  at  Vaagen,  and  could 
neither  sympathize  with  nor  understand  this  yearning 
for  souls  three  hundred  leagues  away.  Wife  and 
children  and  parish  were  to  her  field  enough  for 
apostolic  labors  and  denials,  and  she  begged  Hans 
to  dismiss  his  anxieties,  her  earnest  pleading 
waxing  at  last  into  virtuous  indignation  at  the 
mistaken  zeal  that  would  turn  him  from  duties  close 
at  hand  to  go  on*  a  vague  mission  to  the  ends  of 
earth. 

God  was  dealing  with  her  husband,  and  he  could 
only  answer  that  the  Lord  would  have  him  do  some¬ 
thing  for  Greenland:  of  that  he  was  sure.  He  was 
persuaded  to  wait,  and  four  years  passed  away. 
Greenland  seemed  to  find  another  ice  blockade  in 
Egede’s  heart.  Then  came  three  signs  from  God; 
two  bishops  wrote  letters,  respectively  from  Dron- 
theim  and  Bergen,  both  urging  Egede  to  take  up  this 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


83 


mission ;  and  a  rich  merchant  made  offer  of  transpor¬ 
tation,  and  help  in  founding  a  colony.  Egede  felt  that 
God  was  both  thrusting  him  forth  and  opening  the 
door;  but  his  reluctant  wife  was  now  joined  by  a 
sorrowing  church,  and  again  Hans  Egede  consented 
to  wait,  but  solemnly  added:  ‘ ‘  Twice  God  has 
called  me — if  again  He  calls,  I  go.” 

About  a  year  after,  the  third  call  came;  and  this 
time  it  came  through  his  wife,  Gertrude.  Thorns 
had  been  planted  in  the  household  nest,  and  she  was 
restless  and  unhappy.  Some  hostile  elements  in  the 
parish  made  her  home-life  bitter,  and  Vaagen  lost  its 
charm.  God  was  stirring  up  the  nestling  and  pre¬ 
paring  his  eaglet  for  a  flight.  Half  a  night  was  spent 
on  her  knees.  Then  she  asked  little  Paul,  her 
youngest  child,  whether  she  should  go  with  his  father 
to  the  poor  heathen  across  the  sea;  and  out  of  the 
mouth  of  a  babe  and  suckling  God  spoke  once  more, 
for  he  said,  “Yes,  let  us  go;  and  I  will  tell  1*hem  of 
Jesus  and  teach  them  to  say,  1  Our  Father !’  ”  And 
so,  after  six  years  of  waiting  and  watching  for  God's 
time  to  come,  the  wife,  too,  felt  God  thrusting  her 
forth,  and  now  her  faith  went  beyond  her  husband’s. 

Early  in  1721  the  ship  was  ready  to  set  sail:  and 
when  Hans  Egede  had  his  foot  on  the  plank  to  go  on 
board,  some  sailors  warned  him  that  death  awaited  him 
if  he  ventured  to  those  inhospitable  shores.  They 
said  they  had  come  from  Greenland  and  barely 
escaped  being  eaten  by  those  cannibals  who  dwelt 
there  and  who  had  eaten  some  of  their  party.  Was 
this  God’s  voice  of  warning?  The  Vaagen  pastor 
took  his  four  children  by  the  hand  and  turned  back. 
But  Gertrude  now  led  the  way,  crying,  “O  ye  of 
little  faith !”  and  boldly  crossed  the  plank.  To  her 
this  was  no  sign  that  they  were  to  stay  at  home ;  it 
was  a  test,  from  God,  of  their  worthiness  to  under¬ 
take  for  Him;  and  taking  her  seat  in  the  boat  she 
bade  her  family  follow. 

They  set  sail,  and,  while  the  husband  and  children 


84 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


wept,  her  face  shone  as  if  it  were  the  face  of  an  angel. 
They  undertook  as  pioneers  to  preach  the  gospel  in 
that  foreign  land,  and  with  some  forty  settlers 
founded  the  Christian  colony  of  which  God-thaab, 
(Good  Hope)  is  the  capital. 

The  story  of  Egede  is  one  of  severe  hardship,  but 
it  is  so  full  of  startling  marvels  that  Christlieb  has 
referred  to  it  as  one  of  the  many  instances  which 
modern  missions  furnish  of  that  supernatural  work¬ 
ing  which  seems  to  reproduce  the  apostolic  age. 
Those  stupid  dwarfs,  like  the  icebergs  and  snowfields 
about  them,  seemed  frozen  into  insensibility;  and, 
feeling  that  only  some  sure  sign  of  Divine  power 
could  melt  their  stolid  apathy,  Egede  boldy  asked 
for  the  gift  of  healing,  and  was  permitted  in  scores 
of  cases  to  exercise  it,  while  his  wife  received  the 
gift  of  prophecy,  predicting  in  the  crisis  of  famine 
the  very  day  and  hour  when  a  ship  should  come  bear¬ 
ing  supplies ! 

When  Christian  VI.  discouraged  the  settlement  on 
account  of  the  severe  hardships  and  bitter  disappoint¬ 
ment  of  the  half  famished  colonists,  the  work  of 
Egede  seemed  to  have  come  to  naught.  But  by  a 
very  marvellous  leading  of  God,  where  the  mission  of 
Egede  ended,  Moravian  missions  began.  For,  in 
1731,  at  the  coronation  of  Frederick’s  successor  to  the 
throne,  the  young  Count  Zinzendorf  represented  the 
Saxon  court;  and  meeting  two  Eskimo  converts  of 
Egede,  learned  that  the  mission  work  was  to  be  aban¬ 
doned.  This  was  one  of  the  main  influences  that,  in  the 
next  year,  moved  the  young  count,  and  through  him 
the  Brotherhood,  to  send  to  the  West  Indies  Dober 
and  Nitschmann,  and  to  organize  a  mission  work 
that  should  know  no  limits  but  the  wide  world. 

Count  Von  Zinzendorf — The  Moravian  Apostle. 

1700-1760. 

To  Philip  James  Spener,  head  of  this  pietist  school, 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


85 


and  to  Francke,  his  greater  disciple,  this  Moravian 
bishop’s  spiritual  lineage  must  be  traced.  His 
grandfather,  an  Austrian  noble,  had  for  the  Lord’s 
sake  given  up  all  his  estates,  and  that  heroic  example 
of  self-denial  his  grandmother  and  aunt  had  empha¬ 
sized  by  such  holy  training,  that  the  lad,  at  four 
years,  formally  covenanted  with  his  “  dear  Saviour,” 
“Be  thou  Mine  and  I  will  be  Thine.”  He  so  longed 
for  communion  with  his  unseen  Lord,  that  in  child¬ 
ish  simplicity  he  was  wont  to  write  letters  to  Jesus, 
in  which  he  laid  bare  his  heart,  and,  confident  that  He 
would  get  and  read  them,  tossed  them  from  the 
castle  window. 

When  but  ten  years  old,  the  pupil  of  Francke  at 
Halle,  we  find  him  forming  prayer  circles,  and  the 
Order  of  the  Grain  of  Mustard-seed,  whose  members 
were  to  sow  in  other  hearts  the  seed  of  the  Kingdom. 
Though  drawn  to  classic  pursuits  and  tempted  by 
rank  and  riches,  his  life-motto  was  that  of  Tholuck 
after  him:  “  I  have  one  passion;  it  is  He  and  He 
alone:”  and  it  was  this,  that  amid  the  gaieties  of 
Paris  and  the  snares  of  Dresden,  held  him  fast  to 
Christ.  To  this,  even  the  new  passion  of  love  was  at 
once  brought  into  subjection;  he  would  marry  only 
in  the  Lord,  and  his  unique  covenant  of  wedlock  in¬ 
volved  a  mutual  renunciation  of  rank,  a  consecration 
of  wealth,  and  a  dedication  of  self  to  the  Lord  and 
His  work.  From  this  marriage-altar  two  pilgrims 
went  forth,  as  from  the  paschal  supper  in  Egypt, 
with  loins  girt  and  staff  in  hand,  for  a  new  Exodus. 

On  their  wedding-tour,  they  found  the  Moravian 
exiles  taking  refuge  at  Berthelsdorf,  and  welcomed 
them  to  build  there,  Herrnhut;  and  the  seal  of  the 
Unitas  Fratrum  became  the  count’s  true  coat  of 
arms — a  lamb  on  a  crimson  ground  with  the  cross  of 
resurrection,  and  a  banner  of  triumph,  with  the 
motto:  “Vicit  agnus  noster,  eum  sequamur.” — 
“Our  Lamb  has  won;  let  us  follow  Him.”  Zinzen- 
dorf  began  with  the  resolve  that  wherever  the  Lord 


86 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


had  need  of  him  he  would  find  his  native  land ;  and 
a  little  later  could  say  that  he  would  rather  be  hated 
for  Christ’s  sake  than  be  loved  for  his  own. 

His  history  merges  into  that  of  the  Moravian 
Brotherhood,  which  at  the  hundred  and  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  its  mission  work,  in  1882,  had  sent 
forth  2,170  missionaries,  planted  113  stations,  21 1 
schools,  and  89  Sunday  schools,  with  a  total  of 
23,000  pupils,  and  expended  52,000  pounds  yearly,  at 
a  cost  of  only  three  per  cent,  for  administration. 

The  Unitas  Fratrum  is  the  pioneer  church  in  mis¬ 
sions.  This  brotherhood  is  in  the  direct  line  of 
descent  from  the  Bohemian  martyr,  Huss,  and  his 
contemporary  Chelczicky.  In  1467,  a  few  Bohemi¬ 
ans  formed  themselves  into  an  apostolic  Church. 
Tradition  traces  the  ordination  of  their  first  bishop 
to  a  Waldensian,  priest;  and  so  the  Moravians  are 
linked  to  the  martyrs  both  of  Bohemia  and  of  the 
Vaudois  valleys.  Their  doctrine  took  form  both  in 
the  mould  of  Luther  and  of  Calvin,  as  became  a 
Church  that  was  to  be  known  alike  for  its  vigorous 
faith  and  its  spirit  of  reform.  Persecution  wrought 
the  red  cross  into  the  Moravian  robe,  and  in  1722, 
Christian  David,  the  carpenter,  led  a  mere  band  of 
eleven  exiles  across  the  frontier  into  Saxony. 

How  God  teaches  us  not  to  despise  the  day  of 
small  things !  They  remind  us  of  the  eleven  Apostles  at 
Jerusalem  and  of  the  twelve  Baptists  at  Kettering. 
Five  years  after  they  settled  on  the  site  of  Herrnhut, 
they  were  but  three  hundred  strong,  with  Zinzendorf 
practically  at  their  head;  and  August  13,  1727,  is  still 
kept  as  the  spiritual  birthday  of  the  renewed  Church. 
Ten  years  later  the  count  became  their  bishop,  and 
for  twenty-three  years,  until  his  death  in  1760,  their 
“  advocate.”  To  his  leadership  is  due  more  than  hu¬ 
man  annals  record.  Each  morning  gives  a  new  text 
as  a  watchword;  and  certain  members  of  the  band 
keep  up  the  hourly  prayer,  as  vestals  guarded  the 
sacred  fires  and  lamps.  Death  is  a  joyous  home-going 
to  be  announced  with  song  and  trumpet. 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


87 


The  Brethren  caught  the  spirit  of  their  leader;  the 
“  seed  corn  ”  at  Halle  has  grown  into  the  “  Diaspora  " 
at  Herrnhut,  whose  principle,  as  its  name  implies,  is 
Dispersion.  God  has  given  to  the  Moravians  to 
prove  the  power  of  the  spirit  of  missions,  and  to 
make  real  what  too  many  even  yet  treat  as  an  im¬ 
practicable  ideal.  The  Diaspora  is  one  hundred  and 
sixty-seven  years  old,  has  over  sixty  central  stations, 
numbers  over  seventy  thousand  members,  and  stands 
for  the  home  mission.  To  contact  with  its  working 
force  the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  owed  their  kindling 
of  evangelistic  zeal. 

But  it  is  the  foreign  missions  of  the  Herrnhut 
band  that  furnish  us  our  most  pertinent  example. 
When  in  1732  the  settlement  was  but  ten  years  old 
and  numbered  but  six  hundred,  Dober  sailed  for  the 
West  Indies;  and,  soon  after,  the  United  Brethren 
were  planting  the  cross  in  Greenland  and  Lapland, 
the  Americas  and  Africa.  Less  than  one  hundred 
and  sixty  years  later,  there  were  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  stations  and  filials;  three  hundred  and 
forty-three  missionaries  and  nearly  fivefold  as  many 
native  helpers;  thirty  thousand  communicants,  and 
nearly  twice  as  many  more  baptized  adults;  and  two 
hundred  and  thirty-two  schools  with  twenty  thousand 
pupils. 

All  Christendom  may  well  stop  to  gaze  at  the  unique 
spectacle  of  a  Church,  having  in  its  missions  almost 
three  times  as  many  communicants  and  baptized 
adults  as  in  the  home  Church  of  its  three  provinces : 
British,  German  and  American;  a  Church,  which, 
while  Protestant  Churches  at  large  send  one  member 
out  of  five  thousand  to  the  foreign  field,  sends  one 
out  of  ninety-two !  A  like  ratio  throughout  the 
Churches  generally  would  put  in  the  regions  beyond 
three  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  Protestant  mis¬ 
sionaries  ! 

Let  us  fix  in  mind  the  leading  features  of  this  fore¬ 
most  missionary  Church. 


88 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


First,  its  Evangelistic  Basis .  It  holds  itself  in 
debt  to  a  lost  world,  and  in  trust  with  the  gospel :  as 
trustees  to  discharge,  the  obligation  of  debtors.  All 
are  trained  to  service,  to  work  for  the  common  good 
of  the  Brotherhood  and  the  redemption  of  the  race; 
to  have  few  wants,  frugal  habits  and  readiness  for 
self-sacrifice.  Missions  are  thus  not  the  exception 
but  the  law.  Prompt  obedience  to  any  clear  leading 
of  God  is  the  base-block  of  daily  life.  Zinzendorf 
asked  a  brother  if  he  would  go  to  Greenland.  “  Cer¬ 
tainly.”  “When?”  “To-morrow.”  Any  Church 
destitute  of  the  spirit  of  missions  is  considered  dead, 
and  every  disciple  without  service,  an  apostate. 

Again,  the  law  of  preference .  The  worst  and 
most  hopeless  fields  have  the  first  claim.  Mary  Lyon 
reflected  their  unselfishness  when  she  advised  her 
students  at  Holyoke  to  be  ready  to  go  where  no  one 
else  would,  or  as  a  poor  negro  slave  phrased  it,  ‘  ‘  where 
dere  is  most  debbil.”  It  was  Moravian  blood  that 
impelled  William  Augustine  Johnson  to  choose  Sierra 
Leone,  because  it  was  the  worst  field  known ;  and  so 
Hans  Egede  became  an  exile  in  the  land  of  eternal 
snow,  Dober  offered  to  sell  himself  into  slavery  to 
reach  the  slaves  of  St.  Thomas,  and  later  martyrs 
have  scaled  Thibet’s  mountain  walls  to  unfurl  the  flag 
of  the  cross  above  the  shrine  of  the  Grand  Lama. 

Again,  zeal  for  Divi?ie  approval .  Wordly  ambi¬ 
tion  is  ruled  out  of  the  Moravian  life.  Evangelism,  not 
proselytism,  is  their  principle.  Increase  of  numbers 
is  no  object ;  and  hence  there  is  no  counting  of  converts 
or  overlooking  of  quality  in  quantity.  Of  denomi¬ 
national  growth  they  are  not  jealous,  and  rather  pre¬ 
fer  not  to  extend  their  borders.  To  them  alone  belongs 
the  rare  distinction  of  a  litany  with  this  unique  peti¬ 
tion: 

“  From  the  unhappy  desire  of  being  great, 

Good  Lord,  deliver  us'-” 

Holy  living,  ceaseless  praying,  cheerful  giving. 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


89 


constitute  their  conception  of  discipleship,  and  the 
open  secret  of  that  Brotherhood,  which,  fewest  in 
numbers  and  poorest  in  resources,  leads  the  van  of 
missions. 


Christian  Friederich  Schwartz — Founder  of  the 

Native  Christian  Church  in  India.  1726-1798. 

Here  was  another  of  Germany’s  contributions  to 
the  mission  field.  When  at  the  University  of  Halle, 
he  studied  Tamil  that  he  might  superintend  the  issue 
of  a  Bible  in  that  tongue ;  and,  though  this  purpose 
was  not  carried  into  effect,  he  was  unconsciously  fit¬ 
ting  for  a  singularly  useful  work  at  the  centre  of 
oriental  missions.  Francke,  knowing  that  he  had 
learned  Tamil,  urged  him  to  undertake  a  mission  to 
India;  and  in  January,  1750,  the  meridian  year  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  he  set  sail,  unaccompanied  even 
by  a  wife,  that  he  might  be  the  more  single-eyed  in  his 
devotion  to  His  Master’s  work. 

He  was  successively  identified  with  Tranquebar, 
Trichinopoly  and  Tanjore.  But  Schwartz  left  his  track 
over  all  India,  and  he  can  be  traced  in  footprints  of 
light  after  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Such  was  his 
influence  as  a  man  of  God  that  both  friends  and  foes 
alike  looked  upon  him  with  an  awe  akin  to  worship. 
He  was  a  day’s  man  betwixt  contending  parties,  a 
whole  court  of  arbitration  in  himself.  He  acted  as 
embassy  to  treat  with  Hyder  Ali  and  saved  Tanjore. 
The  cruel  and  vindictive  despot  gave  orders:  “  Let 
the  venerable  Father  Schwartz  pass  unmolested!” 
When,  after  nearly  half  a  century  of  work  in  India, 
he  was  not  for  God  took  him,  he  was  mourned  by  a 
whole  nation.  The  prince  of  Tanjore  wept  over  his 
bier  and  the  Rajah  himself  built  him  a  monument. 

Bishop  Heber  described  him  as  “one  of  the  most 
active,  fearless  and  successful  missionaries  who  have 
appeared  since  the  Apostles,”  and  it  is  a  curious  exam- 


90 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


pie  of  apostolic  succession  in  missions  that  William 
Carey  had  been  five  years  in  Serampore,  when 
Schwartz  was  translated  to  a  higher  sphere. 

“ Father  Schwartz”  wielded  a  sceptre  in  India 
more  potent  than  even  Zeigenbalg,  who  landed  at 
Tranquebar  twenty  years  before  Schwartz  was  born. 
It  may  be  worth  while  to  notice  the  steps  by  which 
such  a  career  was  prepared.  Born  in  1726,  he  was 
left  motherless  while  yet  an  infant.  But,  as  his 
mother  died,  she  gave  her  boy  into  the  hands  of  her 
Lutheran  pastor  and  weeping  husband,  with  this 
solemn  charge,  which  recalls  the  story  of  little 
Samuel:  “  For  this  child  I  prayed,  and  the  Lord  hath 
given  me  my  petition  which  I  asked  of  Him.  There¬ 
fore,  also,  have  I  lent  him  to  the  Lord.  So  long  as 
he  liveth  he  shall  be  lent  to  the  Lord.  Take  him, 
and  foster  in  him  any  aptitude  which  he  may  show 
for  the  Christian  ministry.  This  is  my  last  legacy.” 

The  dying  commission  of  this  modern  Hannah  was 
fulfilled.  His  father  trained  young  Schwartz  to  sim¬ 
ple,  self-denying  habits;  sent  him  at  eight  years  of 
age  to  the  grammar  school  at  Sonnenberg,  where  he 
got  a  good  start  in  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew;  then 
eight  years  later  he  transferred  him  to  a  higher 
school  at  Ciistrin.  There  unhappily,  his  youthful 
passions,  not  yet  under  the  discipline  of  moral  re¬ 
straint,  led  him  into  dissipation,  and  it  seemed  as 
though  his  mother’s  “last  legacy”  would  not  prove 
also  a  prophecy. 

But  God  remembered  his  covenant.  The  lad  was 
kept  back  from  presumptuous  sins.  He  came  under 
Francke’s  influence,  became  interested  in  his  orphan 
houses,  and  studied  at  the  university  where  Francke 
taught.  That  marvellous  man  drew  him  with  cords  of 
love,  led  him  to  a  true  consecration,  and  introduced 
him  to  Schliltze  who  had  been  twenty  years  in  India, 
and  was  then  at  Halle  to  print  the  Tamil  Bible. 
Under  the  contagious  enthusiasm  of  this  saintly 
missionary,  the  seed  planted  in  the  boy’s  heart  by 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


91 


his  mother  found  its  growth  in  the  man’s  life  and 
character. 

But  its  full  ripeness  was  reserved  for  the  oriental 
clime.  On  the  voyage  to  India,  his  remarkable  lin¬ 
guistic  powers  were  again  brought  into  play,  for  he  so 
acquired  the  English  tongue  as  to  be  able  to  preach  in 
that  language  on  his  arrival  at  Tranquebar.  Within 
four  months,  he  preached  with  ease  in  the  native 
dialect;  then  mastered  Persian,  and  so  had  access  to 
the  greatest  of  Mohammedan  princes;  by  his  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  Hindustani,  he  became  invaluable 
in  the  service  of  the  British  Government;  and  fur¬ 
ther  acquired  the  Hindu- Portuguese,  that  he  might 
reach  the  mixed  race  descended  from  this  double 
ancestry. 

His  passion  to  save  men  made  all  labour  and  sacrifice 
seem  little.  He  studied  the  habits,  modes  of  thought 
and  idioms  of  speech,  and  even  the  mazes  of  mythology, 
which  are  the  paths  to  the  hearts  of  the  Hindus. 
But  above  all  he  set  himself  so  to  live  in  God  as  by 
his  life  to  compel  men  to  think  of  God.  No  hin¬ 
drance  was  or  is  so  serious  to  mission  work  as  the 
utter  and  often  shameless  wickedness  of  those  who  in 
the  eye  of  the  native  population  stand  for  “  Chris¬ 
tians.”  The  Indians  of  the  West  said  of  their  Span¬ 
ish  conquerors  in  Central  America,  “  If  they  are  to 
be  in  heaven,  we  prefer  hell;”  and  the  Indians  of 
the  East  replied  to  those  who  preached  to  them 
purity,  “If  only  the  pure  in  heart  can  see  God,  it 
is  sure  that  your  countrymen  will  not  be  found  in 
heaven.” 

But  the  character  of  Schwartz  was  a  sermon  that 
convinced  the  gainsayers.  He  spared  not  himself 
nor  counted  his  own  life  dear.  With  an  energy  and 
unselfishness  that  have  almost  no  parallel,  as  they 
had  almost  no  limit,  early  and  late  he  gave  himself 
to  work,  and  what  his  hands  found  to  do  he  did  with 
his  might.  His  discourse  before  a  small  native  con¬ 
gregation  was  prepared  with  as  much  care  as  if  for 


92 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


courts  and  crowned  heads  of  Europe.  The  country 
became  dotted  with  native  churches. 

He  was  but  forty  years  old  when  events  occurred 
which  stamped  his  career1  as  unique,  even  in  the 
history  of  mission  enterprise.  The  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge  chose  Schwartz  for 
its  new  mission  at  Trichinopoly.  His  whole 
allowance  was  fifty  pounds  a  year.  He  lived  in  a 
small  room  and  on  a  diet  of  rice  and  vegetables.  A 
church  was  built  to  hold  two  thousand  people,  but  he 
would  not  allow  his  work  in  an  English  garrison  to 
hinder  his  greater  work  among  the  natives.  With  the 
humblest  of  them  he  conferred  and  counselled,  and 
the  proud  Brahmans  were  often  won  by  his  argu¬ 
ments,  though  they,  like  the  Pharisees,  feared  to  con¬ 
fess  Christ,  lest  they  should  be  put  out  of  their 
“  synagogues.”  In  1769  he  so  charmed  Rajah  Tal- 
jajee  by  his  thanks  before  meat,  and  his  holy  conver¬ 
sation,  that  when  Schwartz  left  Tanjore,  the  Rajah 
persuaded  him  to  return ;  and  so  great  was  his  influ¬ 
ence  on  the  Rajah’s  subjects  that  they  declared  that 
if  their  prince  would  set  the  example  his  followers 
would  all  become  Christians;  and  the  Rajah  might 
perhaps  have  confessed  Christ  but  for  the  violent 
opposition  of  his  court. 

Henceforth  Schwartz  went  by  the  name  of  the 
“  Padre,”  and  was  free  to  go  where  he  would,  preach¬ 
ing  and  teaching.  His  life  was  a  living  epistle  of 
Christ,  a  whole  volume  of  Christian  evidence  and 
apologetics.  One  young  nabob  said,  “  Until  you 
came  we  thought  of  Europeans  as  godless  men  who 
did  not  know  the  use  of  prayers.”  When  chosen  as 
the  only  man  fit  to  treat  with  Hyder  Ali,  lest  his  hands 
should  even  seem  defiled  with  presents  he  would  take 
nothing  beyond  bare  travelling  expenses;  and  his 
candour  and  courtesy  won  even  that  tyrant,  so  that 
on  a  subsequent  occasion  he  said,  “  Send  to  me  none 
of  your  agents,  for  I  trust  neither  their  words  nor 
pledges :  send  me  the  Christian  missionary  and  I  will 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


93 


receive  him.”  In  the  awful  famine  when  Tanjore 
was  laid  waste,  the  Rajah  said,  “We  have  all  lost 
our  credit ;  let  us  try  whether  the  people  will  trust 
Schwartz,”  who  was  authorized  to  arrange  as  he 
could;  and  in  two  days  a  thousand  oxen  and  eighty 
thousand  measures  of  rice  were  ready  for  the  starving 
garrison. 

This  one  man,  by  the  simple  force  of  his  piety,  was 
not  only  preacher  and  pastor,  but  patriarch.  He 
made  laws  and  gave  judgment.  He  ministered  to 
living  and  dead.  When  punishment  for  slight  of¬ 
fences  became  necessary,  the  culprits  besought  that 
he  might  himself  inflict  the  penalty,  and  from  his 
judgment  there  was  no  attempt  or  desire  to  appeal. 
When,  in  1787,  the  Rajah  died,  his  influence  pre¬ 
vented  the  suttee  at  the  funeral.  All  unsought  by 
him,  the  magistracy  of  the  country  was  in  the  hands 
of  this  saintly  missionary.  Freedom  from  deceitful¬ 
ness  and  selfishness  made  him  the  organizer  of  cos- 
mical  order  in  the  midst  of  social  chaos. 

After  forty-eight  years  of  consecrated  service  he 
died,  his  clear  voice  still  ringing  out  his  favourite 
hymn: 

“  Only  to  Thee,  Lord  Jesus  Christ.” 

The  Rajah’s  heir,  Serjofee,  could  not  be  kept, 
even  by  Hindu  custom,  from  taking  his  place  as  a 
chief  mourner;  and  three  years  later,  at  his  own 
cost,  built  him  a  superb  marble  monument,  executed 
by  Flaxman.  The  epitaph  he  himself  wrote,  the 
first  English  verse  ever  known  to  be  written  by  a 
native  Hindu: 

“  Firm  wast  Thou,  humble  and  wise, 

Honest  and  pure ;  free  from  disguise ; 

Father  of  orphans,  the  widow’s  support ; 

Comfort  in  sorrow  of  every  sort. 

To  the  benighted  dispenser  of  light, 

Doing,  and  pointing  to  that  which  is  right. 

Blessing  to  princes,  to  people,  to  me, 

May  I,  my  Father,  be  worthy  of  Thee, 

Wisheth  and  prayeth  thy  Sarabojee.” 


94 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLEx 


William  Carey — Pioneer  in  Organized  Missions. 

1761-1834. 

To  the  Paulerspury  “cobbler,”  the  famous  mis¬ 
sionary,  Orientalist,  translator,  has  long  been  con¬ 
ceded  a  front  rank  among  pioneers  of  modem 
missions  and  the  new  apostles. 

He  was  born  the  year  after  Zinzendorf  died.  At 
fourteen  years  of  age  a  shoemaker’s  apprentice,  he 
was  converted  at  about  eighteen,  and  soon  after 
reaching  majority  joined  the  Baptists;  three  years 
later  he  was  ordained  minister,  serving  churches 
first  at  Moulton  and  then  at  Leicester;  then  in  1793, 
going  with  Thomas,  as  the  first  missionary  from 
Britain  to  India.  When  he  died  at  seventy-three  he 
had  for  half  a  century  been  the  leading  spirit  in 
modern  missions  to  the  heathen. 

Several  significant  stages  of  progress  are  notice¬ 
able  in  this  leadership.  First  the  kindling  of  the 
fires  in  his  own  soul  and  the  feeding  of  them  with 
the  fuel  of  facts;  then  the  carrying  of  the  live  coals 
to  other  fireless  altars,  fanning  the  embers  until  they 
burned  and  glowed,  and  guarding  the  feeble  flame  lest 
it  be  smothered  by  the  ashes  of  apathy,  dampened 
by  the  atmosphere  of  selfishness,  scattered  by  the 
breath  of  ridicule,  or  quenched  by  the  wet  earth  of 
open  hostility.  A  very  distinct  stride  forward  was 
taken  in  organizing  that  parent  society  at  Kettering, 
among  whose  original  twelve  we  strangely  miss 
Carey’s  own  name.  Then,  the  next  year  he  became 
its  first  representative,  and  actually  arrived  at  Ser- 
ampore  to  give  forty  years  of  service  to  the  field  in 
India. 

Carey’s  life  is  luminous  with  lessons.  First  of  all, 
we  learn  the  worth  of  hard  work.  He  disclaimed 
genius,  but  claimed  “plodding,”  as  his  secret.  He 
dug  down  deep  into  God’s  word  to  find  His  will. 
In  the  reading  of  Cook’s  “Voyages,”  he  went  with 
him  “round  the  world,”  to  learn  man’s  state  and 


THE  NE  IV  PIONEERS. 


95 


need,  and  so  he  yearned  to  bring-  God’s  word  and 
that  world  together,  that  human  want  might  find 
its  supply,  and  human  woe  its  solace.  From  shoe- 
shop  at  Hackleton  to  pulpit  and  chair  at  Serampore, 
he  was  the  same  tireless  plodder.  Up  to  1832  he  had 
issued  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  Bibles, 
wholly  or  in  part,  and  in  forty  dialects,  beside  other 
printed  matter,  including  valuable  grammars  and 
dictionaries  of  Bengali,  Mahratta,  Sanskrit,  etc.  For 
twenty-nine  years  he  was  Oriental  professor  at  Fort 
William  College  in  Calcutta. 

Carey’s  force  lay  in  character.  What  he  wrought 
as  a  missionary  pioneer  must  find  its  main  explana¬ 
tion  in  what  he  was,  as  a  man  of  men,  a  man  of  God. 
Not  what  one  seems,  but  what  one  is,  fixes  the  limit 
of  power;  the  level  beyond  which  the  stream  never 
rises  is  the  character  which  is  its  source  and  its 
spring.  “  To  be  or  not  to  be,  that  is  the  question.” 
Reputation  is  at  best  but  the  reflection  of  character, 
and  often  very  imperfect  and  unfaithful ;  the  echo, 
faint,  feeble,  far  off;  but  if  the  man  be  what  he 
ought,  others  may  filch  from  him  his  “  good  name,” 
but  he  is  not  made  poor. 

Because  of  what  Carey  was,  he  bore  without  harm 
the  brunt  of  a  hard,  long  fight ;  even  the  keen  blade  of 
unsanctified  wit,  when  used  against  him,  only  dulled 
its  edge  and  blunted  its  point  upon  the  shield  of  his 
manly  aim  and  faith  in  God.  To  all  accusers,  tra- 
ducers,  ridiculers,  his  life  gave  the  lie. 

The  energy  of  his  will,  every  purposeful  soul  may 
emulate  and  imitate.  Life  that  is  aimless  is  both 
restless  and  forceless.  On  the  walls  of  society  how 
many  a  trumpet  hangs,  as  we  saw  in  the  case  of 
young  Raimund  Lull,  useless,  voiceless,  rusty !  it  has 
no  lustre  and  gives  forth  no  music,  and  is  losing  the 
power  to  emit  sound.  What  an  hour  of  redemption 
when  some  brave  warrior  lays  hands  on  the  long 
unused  instrument,  puts  it  to  his  lips  and  blows  a 
bugle  blast ! 


96 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES. 


Young  men — you  whose  life  hangs  idle,  aimless, 
mute,  while  the  right  is  battling  with  the  wrong, 
would  that  some  hero-spirit  might  set  you  quivering 
and  resounding  with  the  clarion-peal  of  a  holy  pur¬ 
pose  to  serve  God  and  man!  No  work  is  so  weari¬ 
some  as  doing  nothing,  no  self-sacrifice  so  costly  as 
self-indulgence.  Could  you  wear  the  “  magic  skin  ” 
which  makes  sure  the  gratification  of  every  selfish 
whim,  it  would  shrink  with  every  new  carnal  pleas¬ 
ure  and  so  at  last  crush  out  all  true  life. 

From  the  cradle  to  the  grave  an  indomitable  will, 
yoked  to  a  consecrated  aim,  bore  Carey  onward,  up¬ 
ward,  like  the  black  horse  of  the  rail,  over  torrents, 
up  mountains,  drawing  after  him  more  passive  and 
less  positive  and  resolute  souls.  With  little  teach¬ 
ing  he  became  learned;  poor  himself  he  made  mil¬ 
lions  rich;  by  birth  obscure  he  rose  to  unsought 
eminence;  and  seeking  only  to  follow  the  Lord’s 
leading,  himself  led  on  the  Lord’s  host. 

Carey  had  passion  for  souls,  and,  therefore,  en¬ 
thusiasm  for  missions:  for  human  uplifting  makes 
toil  sweet,  and  loss,  gain.  Self-denial  was  his  habit, 
and  all  the  accumulations  of  his  life  in  India  were 
turned  to  the  cause  of  God;  when  his  income  reached 
^1500  he  reserved  less  than  fifty  for  his  personal 
expenses,  devoting  the  rest  to  the  purposes  of  the 
mission.  This  reminds  us  of  Wesley,  who  kept  his 
personal  outlay  down  to  twenty-eight  pounds  a  year, 
though  his  income  rose  from  fifty  to  five  hundred. 

Carey’s  companions  felt  that  God  was  behind  him, 
and  this  constrained  them  no  longer  to  resist  what  at 
first  seemed  the  wild  scheme  of  a  fanatic,  lest  haply 
they  should  have  been  found  fighting  against  God. 
Dr.  Ryland  confessed  that  God  himself  had  infused 
into  him  that  passionate  solicitude  for  the  salvation 
of  the  heathen  which  could  be  traced  to  no  other  suffi¬ 
cient  source.  He  who,  like  Bunyan,  had  been  given 
to  dishonesty  and  profanity;  whose  untamed  tongue 
had  been  too  familiar  with  the  serpent-slime  of  filth 


TIIE  NE IV  PIONEERS. 


97 


and  lies,  was  from  the  hour  of  conversion  a  new  man. 
His  native  aptitude  for  linguistic  study  early  led  him 
to  search  into  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  French  and 
Dutch;  and  his  deep  sense  of  human  need  and  gos¬ 
pel  power,  drew  him  toward  painstaking  investigation 
into  the  state  of  the  heathen,  and  into  the  Bible  as 
the  secret  of  saving  grace. 

Holy  zeal  consumed  him.  For  ten  years,  with  in¬ 
creasing  ardour  and  fervour,  he  urged  in  private  and 
public  prompt  and  united  effort  for  a  world’s  evan¬ 
gelization.  Whether  mending  a  shoe,  reading  a 
book,  or  teaching  a  boy,  he  was  “  absent-minded,”  for 
his  thoughts  wandered  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  he 
saw  a  thousand  millions  of  lost  souls  without  Bible, 
or  preacher,  or  knowledge  of  Christ.  He  read 
Cook’s  “  Voyages  ”  till  he  knew  as  much  as  the  writer, 
of  the  degradation  and  destitution  he  had  seen ;  then 
he  bought  what  other  books  he  could,  and  borrowed 
what  he  could  not  buy;  until  he  had  picked  up  in 
fragments  a  mass  of  information  so  incredible  that 
he  became  a  living  encyclopedia  of  missions,  and 
even  Scott  was  glad  to  stop  at  “  Carey’s  College  ” 
as  he  went  from  Olney  to  Northampton,  and  so  the 
commentator  sat  at  the  cobbler’s  feet  to  be  taught. 

Andrew  Fuller  found  him  at  Moulton,  a  map- 
maker.  Out  of  such  crude  materials  as  a  cobbler’s 
shop  could  furnish,  with  paper,  paste  and  ink,  he 
had  outlined  the  countries  of  the  world,  representing 
to  the  eye  the  appalling  facts  about  the  race  and  the 
awful  darkness  and  death-shade  in  the  various  lands 
of  cruelty  and  idolatry  and  superstition.  It  was  thus 
that  he  was  prepared,  when  but  thirty-one  years  old, 
to  publish  his  powerful  “  Inquiry  into  the  Obliga¬ 
tions  of  Christians,”  and  in  the  same  year  at  Notting¬ 
ham  to  preach  that  great  sermon  which  has  given  a 
movement  and  a  motto  to  missions  for  a  century 
past,  and  which  led  to  the  great  step  at  Kettering, 
the  same  year,  which  proved  the  turning  point  of 
missionary  organization. 


98 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Behold  the  strange  retributions  and  revolutions  of 
history !  Sydney  Smith  put  Carey  and  his  comrades 
in  the  pillory,  and  pelted  them  with  pitiless  mockery. 
To-day,  not  the  Church  only  but  the  world  honours 
with  homage  the  name  and  memory  of  that  “  sancti¬ 
fied  cobbler.”  Let  men  ridicule !  There  is  a  Nemesis 
of  Providence  whose  hand  holds  a  scourge,  not  of 
small  cords,  but  of  scorpion  stings.  The  “  apostates 
of  the  anvil  and  the  loom  ”  have  become  God’s  apos¬ 
tles  of  the  new  Acts,  and  their  witty  clerical  reviler 
is  now  in  the  pillory ! 

Ah,  ye  humble  working  men,  who,  like  those  prim¬ 
itive  disciples  who  forsook  ship  and  tax  bench  to  be 
Christ’s  heralds,  have  left  shoe-shop  and  shepherd’s 
fold,  forge  and  anvil,  plough  and  shuttle,  for  the  sake 
of  the  Kingdom,  what  crowns  of  glory  await  you  when 
the  final  day  of  awards  rights  the  wrong  of  the  ages ! 


Robert  Morrison — The  Apostle  of  China. 

1782-1834. 

This  famous  “ last-maker”  of  Morpeth  always 
brings  to  mind  one  who  was  born  twenty-one  years 
in  advance  of  him,  the  cobbler  of  Hackleton:  for  as 
Carey  wrought  on  boots,  so  Morrison  wrought  on 
boot-trees.  Like  Carey,  he  had  but  an  elementary 
education,  and  yet  had  such  burning  passion  for  knowl¬ 
edge  that  he  worked  at  his  trade  with  book  open  be¬ 
side  him  and  gave  to  study  the  spare  hours  even  of 
the  night.  At  fifteen  years  of  age  he  joined  the 
Scotch  Church,  and  at  nineteen — again  like  Carey — 
was  digging  deep  among  the  roots  of  Latin  and  He¬ 
brew  tongues,  and  the  more  intricate  mysteries  of 
*  theology. 

While  yet  a  student  at  Hoxton,  Morrison  chose 
the  mission  field,  and  in  1804  was  accepted  by  the 
London  Missionary  Society  and  designated  for 
China.  Two  years  were  given  to  special  prepara- 


THE  NE  IV  PIONEERS. 


99 


tion,  studying  that  strange  language  under  a  native 
teacher.  He  who  undertakes  the  mastery  of  the 
Chinese  tongue  will  find  his  patience  and  persever¬ 
ance  tested.  It  has  been  said  to  demand  “  a  head  of 
iron,  a  chest  of  oak,  nerves  of  steel,  the  patience  of 
Job  and  the  years  of  Methusaleh.”  And  yet  we 
find  Morrison  plodding  away  undismayed  at  the 
task  he  had  undertaken  and  laboriously  copying 
Chinese  manuscripts  in  the  British  Museum. 

In  1807  he  sailed  for  the  Middle  Kingdom  as  an 
ordained  missionary  at  the  age  of  twenty-five. 
But  Chinese  hostility  to  everything  British  com¬ 
pelled  him  to  go  by  way  of  New  York  City,  from 
which  place  he  bore  to  the  American  Consul  at 
Canton  a  letter  from  the  United  States  Secretary  of 
State,  James  Madison. 

Reaching  Canton  in  September,  he  took  lodging 
in  the  humblest  quarters,  adopting  for  the  time 
native  habits  both  of  dress  and  of  diet.  Forbidden 
to  preach,  he  made  closer  search  into  the  perplexi¬ 
ties  of  the  native  language,  and  in  1810,  three  years 
after  landing,  he  actually  put  in  print  the  first  copy 
of  any  portion  of  the  Scriptures  ever  issued  by  a 
Protestant  missionary  in  the  Chinese  tongue.  Four 
years  later  he  had  completed  the  translation  of  the 
whole  New  Testament,  and  with  the  aid  of  William 
Milne,  who  joined  him  in  1813,  in  four  years  more 
he  had  ready  the  entire  Old  Testament  also.  It 
seems  incredible,  but  it  is  true,  that  in  1821,  less 
than  fourteen  years  after  he  set  foot  on  Chinese  soil, 
this  one  man  gave  to  the  Celestials  the  complete 
Word  of  God  in  their  own  vernacular.  This  was  a 
herculean  labor,  and  can  be  appreciated  only  by 
those  who  have  undertaken  a  similar  task  amid  cir¬ 
cumstances  equally  discouraging,  disheartening  and 
difficult. 

But  this  missionary  Hercules  has  other  “  labours,'* 
as  worthy  to  be  reckoned  among  gigantic  achieve¬ 
ments.  During  the  eleven  years  between  1807  and 


100 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


1818,  he  had  also  prepared  and  published  a  Chinese 
grammar  of  three  hundred  pages,  quarto;  and  a 
“  View  of  China,”  for  philological  purposes.  Verily, 
there  have  been  giants,  even  in  these  modern  days, 
who  have  confronted,  undismayed,  foes  more  formid¬ 
able  than  the  Anakim  with  their  chariots  of  iron. 
To  create  a  new  version  of  the  Scriptures — a  first 
attempt,  without  either  helpful  precedents  or  ade¬ 
quate  linguistic  helps — was  an  undertaking  from 
which  any  man  but  Morrison  or  Carey  would  have 
shrunk  back  dismayed. 

These  labours  were  literally  colossal.  The  Old 
Testament  alone  formed  twenty-one  volumes  duo¬ 
decimo;  but  even  such  tasks  were  followed  by  a 
greater,  for  he  compiled  a  Chinese  dictionary,  which 
he  published  in  the  same  year  with  the  completed 
Bible,  and  which  cost  the  East  India  Company  five 
thousand  pounds  sterling  to  issue ! 

When  Morrison  died  in  1834,  he  had  devoted 
twenty-seven  years  to  China  as  a  missionary 
teacher,  translator  of  God’s  Word,  and  distributor  of 
a  new  and  sacred  literature.  He  had  laid  at  Malacca 
in  1818  the  foundations  of  the  Anglo-Chinese  College, 
which  was  afterward  removed  to  Hong-Kong;  and 
himself  gave  toward  the  buildings  and  the  support  of 
the  infant  enterprise,  twenty-two  hundred  pounds. 

The  University  of  Glasgow  sought  to  pay  a  tribute 
to  his  great  intellectual  worth,  when  it  conferred 
upon  him,  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-five,  the  degree 
of  doctor  in  divinity ;  and  the  nation  honored  him 
eight  years  later  by  making  him  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society;  and  George  IV.  granted  him  a  special 
audience,  on  which  occasion  he  presented  the  king 
with  a  copy  of  his  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into 
the  Chinese  tongue. 

But  these  honours  pale  beside  the  crown  which  God 
placed  upon  his  head  in  permitting  him  to  be  the 
great  pioneer  in  that  most  huge  and  hoary  empire  of 
Asia.  What  a  conspicuous  example  is  Morrison  of 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


101 


that  grand  truth,  so  needful  to  be  learned,  that  no 
man’s  true  work  can  be  measured  by  man’s  yard¬ 
stick.  Morrison  was  only  a  pioneer.  He  led  the 
way,  and  that  is  all.  The  end  of  'his  work  as  a  phi¬ 
lologist  and  translator  was  but  the  beginning  of  the 
work  of  evangelization  and  education  which  others 
have  done  after  him  and  are  now  doing.  Morrison 
toiled  hard  but  saw  little  fruit  of  his  toil.  He  broke 
up  the  fallow  soil,  sowed  the  seed,  but  never  saw  the 
harvest  and  put  in  the  sickle.  The  same  year  in 
which  he  gave  the  New  Testament  to  the  people,  he 
baptized  the  first  Chinese  convert,  and  for  four  years 
Tsai-a-Ko  adorned  the  doctrine,  until  he  was  called 
up  into  the  true  country  of  the  Celestials.  But  Mor¬ 
rison’s  reward  was  postponed  for  a  future  day.  He 
ordained  to  the  ministry  Leang-Afa,  after  eight 
years,  during  which  he  had  tested  his  fitness  for  the 
work.  To  present  a  nation  whose  population  repre¬ 
sents  one-fourth  of  the  human  race,  with  the  entire 
Bible;  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  Christian  college 
among  them;  to  gather  to  Christ  the  first  convert, 
and  ordain  the  first  native  evangelist,  is  enough  for 
one  man.  But,  be  it  remembered,  that  as  this  work 
of  missions  is  all  “  God’s  building,”  he  who  lays  the 
foundation-stones,  down  deep,  out  of  sight,  and 
whose  work  may  be  forgotten  by  man  in  the  gran¬ 
deur  of  more  conspicuous  and  famous  achievement, 
has  in  God’s  eyes  equal  honour  and  shall  have  equal 
reward  with  him  who  lays  the  capstone  upon  a 
completed  structure  amid  shouts  of  joy  and  triumph. 
The  rough  base-blocks  lie  beneath  the  surface,  hid¬ 
den  from  human  gaze — but  they  hold  up  the  whole 
building.  But  for  them  the  stately  column  with  its 
delicate  tracery,  the  graceful  arch,  the  sculptured 
frieze  and  cornice,  the  tapering  spire  or  pinnacle,  or 
the  glorious  dome,  were  impossible.  And  so,  when 
China’s  evangelization  is  complete,  and  the  temple 
of  God  stands  in  perfect  beauty,  Robert  Morrison’s 
work  will  receive  both  its  full  recognition  and  reward. 


102 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


Samuel  J.  Mills — Founder  of  Missions,  in  America. 

1783-1818. 

Here  is  another  example  of  spiritual  heredity. 
This  son  of  a  Torringford  minister  was  from  birth 
the  subject  of  pious  instruction;  but  the  influence 
that  shaped  his  character  antedated  even  his  birth, 
for  his  mother  declared  that  she  had  consecrated 
him,  while  yet  unborn,  to  the  service  of  God  as  a 
missionary.  And  from  the  hour  of  conversion,  he 
felt  an  unconquerable  desire,  which  might  better  be 
called  a  passion,  for  service  in  regions  beyond.  This 
passion  instead  of  cooling  with  years  rather  burned 
more  hotly,  and  during  his  college  career  at  Wil- 
liamstown,  from  1806  to  1809,  was  a  consuming  flame. 
There  he  formed  the  little  band  whose  professed  pur¬ 
pose  was  to  “  effect  in  the  persons  of  its  members  a 
mission  to  the  heathen  ”;  and  in  1810,  at  Andover, 
Hall,  Newell,  Judson  and  Nott  joined  him  in  that 
memorial  to  the  General  Association  of  Massachusetts 
which  led  to  the  formation  of  the  American  Board, 
the  pioneer  of  all  societies,  on  this  side  of  the  sea, 
for  carrying  the  gospel  to  the  world. 

This  man,  little  known  as  he  is  even  to  this  day, 
was  the  moving  spring  behind  much  of  the  machinery 
of  missions  both  at  home  and  abroad.  President 
Griffin  of  Williams  College  declared  that,  from  the 
mind  of  Mills  and  from  the  little  society  he  formed 
at  college  came  not  only  the  great  Missionary  Board, 
but  the  American  Bible  Society,  United  Foreign 
Missionary  Society,  and  African  School  under  care 
of  the  Synods  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey;  and  all 
the  impulse  given  to  Domestic  Missions,  to  the  Colo¬ 
nization  Society,  and  to  the  general  cause  of  benevo¬ 
lence  in  both  hemispheres. 

The  name  of  Samuel  J .  Mills  thus  stands  high  in 
rank,  for  he  was  in  a  sense  the  father  and  founder  of 
missions  in  America.  About  the  time  when  Carey 
was  dreaming,  over  his  cobbling,  of  the  thousand 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


103 


millions  without  Christ,  Mills  was  born,  in  1783. 
Before  birth  a  godly  mother,  as  we  have  seen,  conse¬ 
crated  him  to  missions;  at  fifteen  the  Spirit’s  “de¬ 
monstration,”  with  its  swift  logic  of  the  lightning- 
flash  revealed  to  him  his  lost  state  and  his  Saviour ; 
and  from  the  hour  when  he  knew  himself  a  miracle 
of  grace,  like  Saul  of  Tarsus  he  had  but  one  aim. 
Conversion  was,  with  him,  consecration,  illumination, 
revelation,  all  at  once.  God  had  plainly  set  him 
apart  to  a  missionary  career,  but  none  the  less  did  he 
set  himself  apart.  Active  benevolence  was  the  one 
law  of  his  life,  and  wherever  he  was  or  went,  he 
found  a  field  for  his  activity. 

His  life  was  apparently  a  failure  to  carry  out  his 
original  design.  What  at  first  he  willed  to  do  he 
never  lived  to  work  out ;  it  remained  like  the  un¬ 
finished  statue  of  the  sculptor,  where  the  chisel  has 
just  begun  to  show  the  beauty  of  the  ideal  form. 
And  yet  no  man’s  life  was  ever  a  truer  success.  In 
a  way  wholly  unforeseen  and  unique,  he  fulfilled  God’s 
purpose,  and  it  proved  larger  in  scope  and  grander  in 
result  than  his  own.  From  the  age  of  sixteen  he 
flamed  with  one  passion :  to  bear  the  gospel  to  the 
heathen.  If  ever  a  man’s  holy  passion  was  a  prophecy 
of  a  life-work,  his  absorbing  ambition  was  the  promise 
of  a  mission  in  foreign  lands,  though  he  never  actu¬ 
ally  entered  on  the  work  he  had  chosen.  Yet  the 
disappointment  was  God’s  appointment;  for  God 
meant  that  he  should  fulfil  a  far  wider  mission. 

This  was  the  work  of  Mills :  to  show  that  when  the 
true  spirit  of  missions  burns,  it  can  be  pent  up  by  no 
restraints,  quenched  by  no  seeming  failures.  Mills 
was  everywhere  a  missionary.  Humble  as  he  was, 
his  motto  was,  not  to  “  rest  satisfied  till  he  had  made 
his  influence  felt  in  the  remotest  corner  of  this  ruined 
world.”  He  waited  for  no  new  doors  to  open  but 
went  into  the  doors  that  were  opened.  No  dreams 
of  a  field,  more  to  his  liking,  kept  him  from  tilling 
the  field  at  his  feet.  In  college  he  was  planting  trees 


104 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


of  righteousness;  and  so  the  famous  haystack  at 
Williamstown  was  consecrated  by  his  meetings  with 
a  few  like-minded  fellow-students,  and  in  its  shelter 
was  formed  the  covenant  that  sent  Newell  and  Judson 
to  India  and  Burma,  and  became  the  origin  of  the 
American  Board. 

Mills  died  at  thirty-five.  Few  lives  at  seventy- 
five  can  compare  in  work  for  God.  Perhaps  no  man 
ever  started  moving  more  vast  and  varied  schemes 
of  Christian  work,  and  so  projected  the  lines  of  his 
influence  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  and  perpetuated  it 
to  the  end  of  the  age.  His  mind  was  overwhelmed 
with  the  deep  night-shade  of  paganism.  He  made 
himself  master  of  facts,  and  then  used  them  as  shot 
and  shell  to  beat  down  the  walls  of  carelessness  and  in¬ 
difference.  He  yearned  to  enter  at  once  the  thousand 
gates  to  fields  of  holy  work,  to  have  every  limb  a 
tongue,  and  every  tongue  a  trumpet  to  spread  the 
sound  of  the  gospel!  He  found  in  every  new  fact 
a  new  force ,  to  impel  to  new  work.  He  met  the 
poor  heathen  lad  from  Hawaii,  and  that  led  him  to 
form  the  foreign  mission  school  to  train  such  as  him 
for  service.  When  not  yet  ready  to  go  to  foreign 
lands,  he  could  not  wait  in  idleness.  He  leaped  into 
the  saddle  and  for  months  explored  the  half-settled 
South  and  West  of  the  United  States.  Hardships 
hindered  him  not.  He  swam  streams  swollen  with 
rains  and  then  stopped  to  dry  his  wet  clothes  and 
pushed  on,  making  way  through  dense  forests,  wading 
through  swamps,  hungry  and  drenched,  daring  wild 
men  and  wild  beasts,  that  he  might  learn  the  desti¬ 
tution  of  the  people  and  supply  them  with  the  word 
of  God,  preaching  and  conversing  as  he  went;  and 
then  coming  back  to  the  Eastern  coast  to  organize 
Bible  societies  and  home  missionary  effort.  Like  a 
warrior  fresh  from  the  battle-field,  he  went  every¬ 
where  trumpeting  in  Christian  ears  the  awful 
spiritual  wants  of  the  seventy-six  thousand  families 
he  had  found  without  even  a  Bible.  His  charity 


THE  NE IV  PIONEERS. 


105 


began  at  home,  but  it  did  not  stay  there.  He  felt 
that  he  must  pass  the  limits  even  of  those  great 
states  and  territories.  He  felt  himself  “  in  a  pinhole  ” 
even  in  the  great  Mississippi  valley,  while  the  broad 
earth  lay  beyond  with  its  destitute  millions.  He 
waited  not,  like  another  Micawber,  for  opportunity 
to  turn  up;  he  made  opportunity.  Being  for  a  little 
time  in  New  York  City  he  made  explorations  in  the 
metropolis  as  thorough  as  in  his  Southern  tours. 
When  all  eyes  were  turned  to  Africa,  and  the  coloni¬ 
zation  scheme  was  formed,  he  threw  his  energies 
into  that ,  and  himself  sailed  for  the  Dark  Continent  on 
a  mission  in  its  behalf,  and  on  his  return  voyage  died 
and  was  buried  at  sea. 

For  the  young  men  of  this  generation  I  can  find 
no  finer  example  of  a  consecrated  life.  At  thirty- 
five  years  his  life-work  on  earth  closed.  Yet  already 
he  had  lived  a  century,  if  life  is  measured  by  its  aims 
and  achievements.  Most  of  us  do  not  begin  to  live 
until  we  begin  to  die.  Most  men  think  of  life  as  all 
before  them  at  an  age  when  his  was  all  behind  him. 
He  packed  the  years  with  noble  work  for  God  and 
man,  and  made  every  day  a  week,  and  every  week  a 
month,  and  every  month  a  year,  in  the  reckoning  of 
service.  Like  a  comet  whose  brilliance  increases  so 
fast  as  it  nears  its  perihelion,  he  moved  nearer  and 
nearer  to  his  Lord,  and  his  life  grew  brighter  and 
more  glorious,  until  its  lustre  was  lost  in  the  sun  of 
righteousness  into  whose  splendours  it  was  merged. 


AdONIRAM  JuDSON - APOSTLE  OF  BURMA.  1788-1850. 

When  God  thrust  Judson  forth  to  serve  Him  in 
the  field  of  missions,  He  knew  His  man,  for  He  had 
trained  and  fitted  him  for  His  work.  His  genius  was 
not  inferior  to  that  of  Duff ;  his  industry,  to  that  of 
Carey;  his  piety,  to  that  of  Wayland;  his  spiritual 
instincts  not  less  keen  than  those  of  Schwartz.  His 


106 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


career  embodies  the  romance  of  heroism,  touched 
and  tinged  with  the  pathos  of  severe  suffering. 

God  meant  Judson  to  be  a  pioneer  at  Burma,  and 
he  combined  the  qualities  needful  in  leaders  of  great 
enterprises, — self-reliance  tempered  with  humility, 
energy  restrained  by  prudence,  activity  anointed 
with  unselfishness;  and,  withal,  that  patience  and 
passionate  love  for  souls  which  no  man  knows  until 
he  is  devoted  to  a  holy  purpose  and  is  absorbed 
in  God. 

Judson  was  one  of  the  five  now  famous  men  whose 
offer  of  themselves  for  work  abroad  became  the 
nucleus  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions.  On  the  way  to  India,  the  radical 
change  of  his  views  on  the  subject  of  baptism  became 
the  germ  of  a  new  movement,  the  organization  of 
the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union;  so  that 
providentially  he  led  the  way  in  the  formation  of 
two  of  the  most  efficient  and  successful  among  all 
the  existing  missionary  societies. 

Like  many  another  of  God’s  heroes,  disappoint¬ 
ment  met  him  at  the  outset.  India  was  his  chosen 
field,  but  he  was  driven  further  on  to  Burma,  and  so 
became  there  the  first  missionary  of  the  new  Baptist 
Board,  thus  doubly  diverted  from  a  Presbyterian 
mission  and  from  India,  that  he  might  found  a  Baptist 
mission  in  Burma.  It  was  another  illustration  of  the 
Higher  Power  that  is  back  of  contrary  winds.  God 
drove  him  out  of  his  course  as  he  had  planned  it,  to 
drive  him  into  another  course,  as  God  had  planned  it. 
There  was  a  barrier  that  suffered  him  not  to  go  into 
Bithynia,  that  he  might  obey  another  call  and  enter 
an  open  door  into  Macedonia. 

Four  facts  stand  in  the  foremost  rank  in  the  fur¬ 
nishing  of  this  Burmese  apostle. 

First,  the  fact  of  his  conversion.  Of  this  he  had  that 
clear  assurance,  for  lack  of  which  nothing  else  will 
compensate.  Whether  poets  are  “  born  ”  or  “  made,” 
there  is  no  doubt  about  a  true  missionary.  He  must 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


107 


be  born  from  above.  He  can  never  be  made  by  man. 
No  native  genius  or  acquired  scholarship,  no  endow¬ 
ments  of  nature  or  attainments  of  culture,  can  supply 
the  place  of  regeneration.  Nay  more,  it  is  the  men 
who  are  saved  and  know  it,  who  by  their  experience 
give  life  and  power  to  their  testimony.  The  mes¬ 
sage  needs  the  man  to  back  it ;  the  Bible  needs  the 
believer  behind  it.  The  righteousness  of  God  is  re¬ 
vealed  from  faith  in  the  preacher,  to  faith  in  the 
hearer. 

Secondly,  the  fact  of  his  call.  The  work  of  a  mis¬ 
sionary  was  his  vocation.  The  voice  of  conviction 
and  of  consciousness  affirmed  it.  With  Paul  he  could 
say,  “It  pleased  God  who  separated  me  from  my 
mother’s  womb,  and  called  me  by  His  grace,  to  re¬ 
veal  His  Son  in  me,  that  I  might  preach  Him  among 
the  heathen.”  From  the  very  first  he  heard  and 
heeded  that  voice,  and  went  out  not  knowing  whither 
he  went.  Because  it  was  an  example  of  the  obedi¬ 
ence  of  faith,  he  went  on  in  the  midst  of  disappoint¬ 
ments;  the  retrospect  might  be  dark  and  the  aspect 
darker,  but  the  “prospect  was  as  bright  as  the 
promises  of  God.” 

Thirdly,  the  fact  that  he  had  the  word  of  God. 
To  him  the  Bible  was  God’s  own  book ;  he  believed 
in  it  throughout,  and  loved  it.  His  devotion  to  it 
reminds  us  again  of  the  famous  Tuscan  sculptor’s 
fondness  for  that  relic  of  the  Athenian  Apollonius 
in  the  Vatican,  for  Judson  studied  the  Bible  from 
every  point  of  view,  as  M.  Angelo  did  the  torso. 

His  reverent  affection  for  God’s  word  made  it  a 
constant  delight  to  study  it.  Compared  with  its 
infallible  oracles,  “the  tradition  of  the  elders”  was 
nothing,  and  his  aim  was  to  construct  his  own  char¬ 
acter,  and  build  in  Burma  an  Apostolic  Church,  in  all 
things  according  to  the  pattern  showed  him  in  the 
holy  mount.  That  this  word  might  mould  the 
people,  he  became  translator,  and  so  joined  the  noble 
army  to  which  belonged  Waldo  and  Lefevre,  Wyclif 


108 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


and  Tyndale,  Luther  and  Bedell,  Carey  and  Eliot, 
Morrison  and  Hepburn. 

Fourthly,  the  fact  that  he  held  a  scriptural  idea  of 
missions.  He  had  learned  that  to  preach  the  gospel 
to  unsaved  souls  is  the  one  grand  business  of  the 
Church.  Too  many  seem  to  count  this  but  as  one 
of  many  forms  of  benevolent  work,  and  they  talk  of 
missions  as  an  organization  of  the  Church.  But 
Judson  saw  that  the  converse  is  true;  that  the 
Church  is  both  the  result  and  fruit  of  missions ;  and 
his  life  motto  was :  The  Church  is  both  constituted 
and  commissioned  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  world. 
Of  course,  then,  the  chief  work  of  the  missionary  is 
put  beyond  doubt.  Though  a  man  of  the  instincts 
and  the  culture  of  a  scholar,  finely  fitted  for  a  teacher, 
true  to  his  principles,  he  made  it  his  one  great  work 
to  preach  Christ,  and  all  else  held  lower  rank. 

To  estimate  Judson  aright  we  must  emphasize 
his  scriptural  idea  of  a  Church.  To  him  it  was  no 
worldly  association  or  religious  club  of  respectable 
moralists,  or  people  whose  claim  to  membership 
rested  upon  their  baptism  in  infancy.  It  was  no 
lawless  democracy,  or  lordly  monarchy,  or  titled 
aristocracy;  no  mutual  benefit  society  or  social  com¬ 
munity  for  religious  and  ethical  culture.  He 
believed  the  Church  to  be  a  divine  institution,  com¬ 
posed  of  converted  souls ;  its  threefold  end,  spiritual 
worship,  holy  living,  and  unselfish  service.  He 
sought,  therefore,  first  of  all  to  preach  that  gospel 
by  which  souls  are  saved ;  then  out  of  converts  to 
form  New  Testament  Churches,  and  make  them 
self-governing,  self-supporting,  self-propagating ; 
and  to  raise  up  a  native  ministry  as  the  condition  of 
their  normal  development. 

He  particularly  interests  the  student  of  missions, 
as  one  who  projected  a  biblical  theory  of  missions 
and  put  his  theory  into  effective  practice.  His  plan 
was  essentially  Pauline,  and  it  led  to  and  fed  an  un¬ 
selfish  heroism.  The  mission  field  offered  a  tempt- 


THE  JVE IV  PIONEERS. 


109 


ing  bait  to  ambition  and  avarice,  as  it  became  plain 
even  to  the  Burmese  powers  what  a  high  order  of 
man  this  humble  missionary  was.  But  Judson  lived 
and  died  poor.  He  illustrated  the  self-abnegation 
which  is  the  cardinal  law  and  primary  condition  of  a 
missionary  life.  As  Dr.  Maclaren  finely  says,  “The 
chord  that  vibrates  most  musically  is  itself  unseen 
while  it  vibrates.” 

The  apostle  of  Burma  believed  every  man’s  life  to 
be  a  plan  of  God,  and  that  he  should  study  to  find 
out  and  fill  out  that  plan.  The  result  was,  as  it 
always  is,  an  increase  of  power.  His  weak  will  was 
energized  by  the  stronger  will  of  God,  and  his  sphere 
was  constantly  expanding  as  his  capacity  was  enlarg¬ 
ing;  as  God  gave  him  more  power  to  work,  he  gave 
him  more  room  to  work.  Another  result  was  a  con¬ 
stant  deepening  of  joy.  Partnership  with  God  made 
easy  to  him  patient  doing,  bearing,  and — what  is 
hardest — waiting.  And  last  of  all  came  certain  suc¬ 
cess,  for  God  never  fails,  nor  does  he  who  sides  with 
God. 

Blessed  is  he  who,  like  Judson,  learns  to  call 
Jesus  not  only  Saviour,  but  Lord.  The  clear  eye  to 
see,  the  prompt  will  to  obey,  the  total  self-surrender 
to  serve,  at  whatever  cost  of  sacrifice  and  suffer¬ 
ing — these  are  the  steps  whereby  we  keep  to  God’s 
plan,  and  get  that  enduement  of  power  which  both 
brings  and  is9  success.  When  the  daughter  of  Pastor 
A.  G.  Brown,  of  London,  was  asked  what  led  her  to 
China,  she  said:  “I  had  known  Jesus  as  Saviour, 
Redeemer,  Friend;  but  as  soon  as  I  knew  Him  as 
Lord  and  Master,  He  said  to  me,  ‘Am  I  thy  Lord 
and  Master  ?  then  go  to  China.’  ” 

When  Judson  died,  hundreds  of  baptized  Burmans 
and  Karens  were  sleeping  in  Jesus,  and  over  seven 
thousand  survived,  in  sixty-three  churches,  under 
oversight  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-three  mission¬ 
aries,  native  pastors,  and  helpers.  Judson  had 
finished  his  Bible  translation,  compiled  a  Burmese 


110 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES . 


dictionary,  and  laid  the  basis  of  Christian  character 
deep  down  in  the  Burman  heart. 

In  the  Baptist  meeting-house  at  Malden,  Massachu¬ 
setts,  one  may  read  upon  a  simple  memorial  tablet : 

“IFn  /Iftemorlam* 

Rev.  Adoniram  Judson. 

Bom  August  9,  1788, 

Died  April  12,  1850. 

Malden,  his  Birthplace, 

The  Ocean,  his  Sepulchre ; 

Converted  Burmans 
and 

The  Burman  Bible 
His  Monument. 

His  Record  is  on  High.” 


Captain  Allen  F.  Gardiner — Pioneer  of  Tierra 

del  Fuego.  1794-1851. 

It  was  a  striking  saying  of  the  Hon.  Ion  Keith  Fal¬ 
coner,  the  noble  martyr  of  the  mission  at  Aden,  that 
we  must  not  fear  to  be  called  “  eccentric.’’  That 
word  means  “  out  of  centre,”  and  if  we  are  in  the 
true  centre  as  to  God,  in  the  orbit  of  obedience,  we 
shall  be  out  of  centre  as  to  the  world. 

Allen  Gardiner  was  an  enthusiast,  a  fanatic,  but  in 
the  eyes  of  God  he  was  fired  with  a  divine  passion. 
His  enthusiasm  was  an  “  en-the-ism.”  While  an 
officer  in  the  English  navy,  the  death  of  his  young 
wife  left  him  free  to  give  himself  to  missionary  ser¬ 
vice,  and  he  shrank  not  from  pioneer  work  among 
the  worst  heathens.  After  a  trial  of  other  lands  he 
turned  to  South  America,  but  there  was  no  open 
door,  for  priests  of  Papal  Rome  stood  between  him 
and  the  wild  pagan  tribes  of  the  far  South,  until, 
at  the  Southern  Cape  itself,  he  found  the  island  of 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  so  remote  that  Spanish  Jesuits 
cared  not  to  keep  up  their  pursuit. 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


Ill 


Dr.  Flint  says  of  the  gospel,  that  its  divine  origin  is 
seen  in  its  universal  adaptation.  Here  is  the  magic 
mirror  in  which  the  Eskimo  and  Maori,  Fuegian 
and  Fijian,  Melanesian  cannibals  and  Australian  abo¬ 
rigines  alike  see  reflected  what  they  are,  and  what 
they  may  be.  The  message  of  Christ  crucified  and 
risen  has  captivated  alike  the  wisest  sage  and  the 
simplest  child ;  because  meant  for  the  universal  man  • 
it  finds  a  reception  wherever  it  gets  a  hearing. 
Darwin  himself,  who  found,  in  the  natives  of  this 
4 4  Land  of  Fire,”  the  missing  link  between  man  and 
the  monkey,  has  left  on  record  his  testimony  that 
“  the  lesson  of  the  missionary  is  the  wand  of  the  en¬ 
chanter.” 

Against  all  conceivable  obstacles  Allen  Gardiner 
persevered.  Nature  herself  was  inhospitable;  the 
climate  forbade  his  approach:  winds  and  waves, 
summer  rains  and  winter  sleet,  drove  him  back.  Man 
gave  him  no  welcome.  The  Patagonians  had  low 
foreheads,  but  lower  minds  and  morals,  wretched 
hovels  and  scant  clothing;  they  seemed  incapable  of 
any  high  impulses  or  real  improvement.  At  times 
they  were  like  brute  beasts ;  at  others,  treacherous 
robbers.  At  first  he  was  compelled  to  retreat,  and 
return  to  England.  But,  if  he  could  not  land  on  the 
shore,  he  could  float  on  the  sea ;  and  so  we  have  that 
unique  illustration  of  a  new  method  in  missions,  in 
Captain  Gardiner’s  two-decked  boats  at  Banner  Bay, 
where,  with  two  catechists  and  two  more  pious  sailors, 
he  undertook  to  do  pioneer  work  among  the  natives, 
from  his  floating  home.  Everyone  of  his  party  per¬ 
ished,  never  again  seen  alive  by  an  Englishman. 
Starvation  slowly  slew  them,  and  only  their  dead 
bodies  and  their  diaries  were  found  to  tell  the  awful 
tale.  One  by  one,  and  Gardiner  last  of  all,  they  had 
succumbed  to  hunger. 

Yet  there  had  been  no  whining  nor  murmuring. 
The  farewell  message  of  the  last  survivor  bore  testi¬ 
mony  :  ‘  *  Poor  and  weak  as  we  are,  our  boat  is  a  very 


112 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


Bethel  to  our  souls,  for  we  feel  and  know  that  God  is 
here.  Asleep  or  awake,”  wrote  Captain  Gardiner, 
“I  am,  beyond  the  power  of  expression,  happy.” 
Instead  of  vain  repining  or  lamenting,  he  left  behind 
only  earnest  entreating  that  the  mission  should  not 
be  abandoned,  and  left  a  brief  plan  outlining  future 
operations. 

Such  was  his  passionate  love  for  God  that,  even 
while  starving,  he  could  record  nothing  save  marvels 
of  mercy,  and  declared  that  after  five  days  of  fasting 
he  felt  neither  hunger  nor  thirst.  And  over  the 
place  where  he  lay  down  to  die  he  had  inscribed,  on 
the  rock,  from  the  Psalms,  this  precious  motto : 

“  Wait,  O  my  soul,  upon  God ! 

For  all  my  expectation  is  from  Him.” 

He  died,  having  seen  no  results  of  his  work.  He 
had  sown  in  tears,  but  not  a  blade  appeared.  It 
was,  however,  no  failure ;  for  to-day  among  the 
heathen  tribes  of  Paraguay  there  is  springing  up  a 
plenteous  harvest.  Hope  was  deferred,  but  not  lost; 
faith  was  tried  but  not  tired,  and  triumphed. 

It  was  a  very  strange  way  by  which  God  led  Allen 
Gardiner.  His  love  for  maritime  adventure  led  him  to 
a  naval  college,  and  into  service  in  the  navy.  Little 
did  he  know  that  the  curiosity  which  drew  him  to  a 
heathen  temple  in  China  to  witness  the  superstitions 
of  idolaters,  was  to  be  the  means  of  quickening  the 
seed  sown  in  his  heart  by  pious  parents.  He  saw 
what  heathenism  was,  and  he  took  his  stand  boldly 
for  Christ  and  the  Gospel.  He  began  to  seek  the 
salvation  of  his  shipmates,  who  were  practically 
pagans ;  then  as  the  ship  touched  at  various  ports  he 
obtained  leave  of  absence  and  explored  the  region 
near  by,  and  so  made  himself  familiar  everywhere 
with  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  natives. 

The  passion  for  mission  work  became  more  in¬ 
tense.  In  1834,  he  went  to  Zululand,  but  was  driven 
thence  three  years  later  by  the  cruel  war  between 


THE  NE IV  PIONEERS. 


113 


Chief  Dingaan  and  the  Dutch  farmers.  A  whole 
year  was  spent  in  fruitless  effort  to  get  entrance  for 
the  gospel  into  New  Guinea;  then  for  ten  months  he 
was  on  the  Falkland  Islands,  and  while  there  visited 
Patagonia,  where  he  besought  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  to  plant  a  mission;  and  in  1845,  he  himself 
with  Robert  Hunt,  anchored  in  Gregory  Bay;  but 
Chief  Wissale’s  4 ‘petulance,  cupidity,  treachery,  dis¬ 
honesty  and  extortion  ”  again  compelled  withdrawal, 
and  even  as  they  were  conveying  their  few  effects 
on  board  an  English  bark,  this  dastardly  chief 
was  plying  his  thieving  arts. 

In  the  same  year,  1845,  nothing  daunted,  Gardiner 
with  Mr.  Gonzalez  went  to  Bolivia,  daring  the  Ata¬ 
cama  desert  for  the  gospel’s  sake.  Again  met  by  dis¬ 
heartening  obstacles,  in  1848,  he  headed  a  small  pio¬ 
neer  party  of  five,  whose  destination  was  Tierra  del 
Fuego,  where  the  hopeless  hostility  of  the  natives, 
led  on  by  Chief  Jemmy  Button,  convinced  him 
that  “  The  missionary  establishment  must  for  the 
present  be  afloat!  ”  Often  perplexed,  he  was  never 
in  despair,  and  nothing  could  kill  his  imperishable 
faith  and  hope.  “  Being  with  him  was  like  a  heaven 
upon  earth:  he  was  such  a  man  of  prayer,”  said 
Joseph  Erwin,  his  boat  carpenter. 

Captain  Smyley’s  journal  and  Captain  Morshead’s 
letters  gave  the  public  the  awful  facts  about  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  this  starved  party  of  missionaries — how 
from  June  22  to  Sept.  6,  when  Gardiner  must  have 
died,  they  had  been  out  of  provisions.  Men  who  read 
or  heard  this  pathetic  tale,  knew  not  which  emotion 
was  the  mightier,  horror  at  such  a  tale  of  suffering, 
or  admiration  at  such  dauntless  heroism. 

Secretary  Despard  published  far  and  wide  the 
decision  of  the  Patagonian  Society,  that  “With 
God’s  help,  the  mission  shall  not  be  abandoned;”  and 
the  Allen  Gardiner  left  Bristol  in  1854,  and  in  1855 
once  more  anchored  in  Spaniards’  Harbour.  A  few 
days  later,  at  Earnest  Cove,  a  new  mission  party  had 


114 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


1 6  the  mournful  satisfaction  of  standing  on  the  spot 
where  the  remains  of  Gardiner  were  found,”  and, 
with  appropriate  memorial  services,  of  setting  up  a 
tablet:  “In  memory  of  the  lamented  missionary 
martyrs.” 

The  period  of  trial  was  not  yet  past.  In  1858,  a 
suitable  site  was  fixed  upon  for  a  mission,  which 
was  named  Wycliffe.  But  Capt.  Fell  and  brother, 
and  Mr.  Phillips,  the  catechist,  were  brutally  mur¬ 
dered,  and  the  Allen  Gardiner  was  found  in  Beagle 
Channel  a  perfect  wreck,  with  one  survivor,  the 
cook. 

Again  the  wrecked  vessel  being  repaired,  another 
beginning  was  made,  and  since  1872  the  work  has 
gone  steadily  forward.  On  Keppel  Island,  Fuegians 
are  boarded  and  trained.  El  Carmen,  on  the  coast, 
has  been  a  medical  mission  for  thirty  years  past. 
The  Allen  Gardmer  still  goes  on  its  mission  cruises, 
and  it  has  been  so  demonstrated  that  brutal  Pata¬ 
gonians  and  Fuegians  may  be  evangelized,  civilized, 
christianized,  that  Admiral  Sulivan,  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  South  American  Missionary  Society 
in  1881,  stated,  after  residing  at  the  Falkland  Islands, 
that  he  had  informed  Darwin  of  the  great  changes 
which  had  taken  place  in  his  human  monkeys — of 
kindness  shown  to  shipwrecked  crews  by  the  con¬ 
verted  natives — how  fowl-houses  remained  unlocked 
without  even  the  theft  of  an  egg;  and  stated,  that  in 
reply  Darwin  had  candidly  confessed,  ‘ 6 1  could  not 
have  believed  that  all  the  missionaries  in  the  world 
could  ever  have  made  the  Fuegians  honest.” 

So  remarkable  is  the  testimony  of  this  great 
naturalist,  who  was,  however,  no  “supernaturalist,” 
that  with  his  oft-quoted  testimony  we  close  this 
brief  sketch.  He  had  said  after  his  visit  to  Patagonia, 
“Nothing  can  be  done  by  means  of  mission  work ; 
all  the  pains  bestowed  on  the  natives  will  be  thrown 
away;  they  never  can  be  civilized.”  This  was  Dar¬ 
win’s  opinion  until  proofs  of  the  facts  confronted 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


115 


him,  and  then  he  candidly  admitted  he  was  wrong, 
and  added:  “I  had  always  thought  that  the  civiliza¬ 
tion  of  the  Japanese  is  the  most  wonderful  thing  in 
history;  but  I  am  now  convinced  that  what  the 
missionaries  have  done  in  Tierra  del  Fuego,  in  civiliz¬ 
ing  the  natives,  is  at  least  as  wonderful.”  And  from 
this  time  Darwin  himself  regularly  subscribed  to  the 
society’s  funds. 

John  Williams — The  Apostle  of  the  South  Seas. 

i796~i839- 

How  curious  are  the  coincidences  of  history !  It 
was  only  six  weeks  after  Williams  was  born,  when 
The  Duff  sailed  for  Tahiti,  as  though  the  ship  that 
was  to  introduce  the  gospel  to  the  Southern  Seas 
waited  until  the  coming  apostle  of  those  island 
groups  was  born,  before  it  unfurled  its  sails ! 

The  life  we  now  outline  covered  only  about  forty- 
three  years,  from  June  29,  1796,  to  Nov.  20,  1839. 
But  it  was  crowded  with  the  wonderful  works  of 
God.  At  twenty-one  years  of  age,  John  Williams 
was  sent  to  Eimeo,  thence  removing  to  Huahine  and 
Raiatea.  After  five  years  of  apostolic  success,  he 
visited  the  Hervey  group,  founding  a  mission  at 
Raratonga,  where  he  prepared  books  and  in  part  a 
Bible  translation.  Then  in  a  boat,  built  by  himself, 
he  explored  most  of  the  surrounding  archipelago, 
establishing  the  Samoan  mission.  Four  years  were 
spent  in  England,  from  1834  to  1838,  publishing  his 
story  of  the  South  Seas  and  his  Raratongan  New 
Testament,  raising  five  thousand  pounds  for  a  new 
missionary  ship,  and  planning  for  a  high  school  at 
Tahiti,  and  a  theological  school  at  Raratonga  for 
training  native  evangelists.  With  sixteen  recruits 
he  returned  to  his  most  loved  work,  visited  Samoa, 
sailed  for  the  New  Hebrides  to  start  a  new  mission, 
and,  on  the  shores  of  Erromanga,  fell  a  martyr. 
Twenty-two  years — from  the  ironmonger’s  forge  in 


116 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


London  to  the  savage’s  club  at  Dillon’s  Bay !  But 
what  a  unique  mission,  and  what  a  lustrous  record  on 
high! 

Williams,  though  generally  and  deservedly  known 
as  the  Apostle  of  the  South  Seas,  was  not  the  pioneer 
in  those  waters.  Captain  Cook’s  voyages  had  turned 
toward  these  island  clusters  many  eyes  besides  those 
of  William  Carey  and  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon. 
When,  in  1795,  the  London  Missionary  Society  was 
founded,  such  interest  had  been  awakened  in  this 
archipelago,  that  as  early  as  August  10,  of  the 
next  year,  The  Duff  set  sail  for  Tahiti,  under  com¬ 
mand  of  that  devoted  Christian,  Captain  James 
Wilson,  and  with  thirty  missionaries  aboard.  More 
than  twenty  years  had  gone  by  before  John  Williams 
followed,  but  his  career  was  so  exceptional,  that 
without  it  the  work  in  Polynesia  would  be  a  drama 
without  its  main  actor. 

The  religious  revolution  wrought  under  his  very 
eyes  has,  for  rapidity  and  range  of  result,  no  parallel. 
The  prophecy  was  literally  fulfilled: 

“  The  isles  shall  wait  for  His  law : 

As  soon  as  they  hear  of  me  they  shall  obey  me. 

The  strangers  shall  submit  themselves  to  me.” 

A  year  after  Raratonga  was  discovered  by  Will¬ 
iams,  idolatry  was  in  ruins;  a  whole  people  called 
upon  themselves  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  built  a 
place  of  worship  six  hundred  feet  long,  where  Aitu- 
takian  chiefs  were  the  main  speakers.  Greater  won¬ 
der  still,— all  this,  before  one  English  missionary  had 
yet  taught  on  the  island!  God  had  used,  to  work 
this  transformation,  two  plain,  untaught  natives! 
Here,  ten  years  after  Williams  had  sailed  for  Eimeo, 
he  met  the  largest  concourse  of  worshippers  he  had 
ever  seen  outside  of  his  own  country;  and  as  they 
moved  past  him  they  laid  at  his  feet  fourteen  huge 
idols  as  gospel  trophies ! 

The  Raratongans  kept  their  Sabbaths  as  he  had 


THE  NE IV  PIONEERS. 


117 


never  seen  the  Day  of  Rest  kept  before.  Prayer 
saluted  the  sunrise  and  the  sunset,  as  though  to 
punctuate  holy  time  with  worship,  and  the  hours 
between  were  full  of  studies  in  the  Word  of  God,  for 
the  people  made  notes  of  all  the  sermons  they  heard, 
that  they  might  search,  like  the  Bereans,  into  the 
truths  they  were  taught.  N ew  codes  of  laws  were  built 
upon  the  corner-stone  of  this  teaching;  marriage 
was  hallowed  and  polygamy  proscribed.  One  island 
after  another  became  a  sanctuary,  vocal  with  prayer 
and  praise.  Chiefs  presided  at  holocausts  of  idols, 
stripping  the  gay  trappings  from  their  former  gods,  . 
and  feeding  them  as  fuel  to  the  fires.  There  were 
cases  in  which  a  few  hours  sufficed,  to  complete  the 
destruction  of  all  false  gods  and  idol  fanes,  and  to 
lay  the  foundations  of  chapels  for  Christian  worship. 

One  scene  it  is  well  to  delineate  as  an  example  of 
many.  Tomatoa  and  his  followers  approach  Opoa. 

A  crowd  is  at  the  beach  to  seize  the  usual  captives 
of  war.  But  a  herald  shouts  from  the  canoes,  “We 
bring  to  you  no  slain  victims;  we  are  all  praying 
people  who  worship  the  true  God;  these” — holding 
up  the  books  prepared  by  missionaries — “  these  are 
our  victims  and  trophies  of  war.” 

When  the  war-god,  Oro,  was  disrobed,  and  his 
temple  burned  by  converts  at  Opoa,  the  heathen 
party  built  a  huge  cage  of  wicker-work  in  which 
to  bum  all  the  Christians  alive.  Unceasing  prayer 
brought  such  plain  help  from  above,  that  in  the 
ensuing  struggle  even  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  felt 
that  His  hand  was  against  them,  and  they  threw 
down  their  weapons  and  fled,  panic-stricken.  They 
looked  only  for  vengeance  from  their  Christian  con¬ 
querors,  but  found  instead  a  sumptuous  feast  prepared 
for  them,  and  for  sheer  astonishment  could  not  eat. 
Then  one  of  the  vanquished  heathen  party  rose  and 
said:  “  Others  may  act  as  they  will;  but  never  again 
will  I  worship  gods  that  could  give  no  help  in  the 
hour  of  danger.  We  were  four  times  as  many  as 


118 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES, . 


these  praying  people,  and  yet  they  have  defeated  us 
with  the  greatest  ease.  Their  god  must  be  the  true 
God.  Theirs  is  a  religion  of  mercy.  Had  we  won 
the  victory  they  would  now  be  burning  in  that  cage ; 
but  instead  of  burning  us,  they  feed  us.  I  will  go  and 
join  this  people!”  Such  was  the  power  of  these 
words  that  every  one  of  the  heathen  party  bowed 
that  night  in  prayer  to  the  God  of  the  Christians, 
and  praised  Him  for  giving  to  His  own  praying 
people  the  victory!  And  the  next  morning,  after 
prayer,  all  united  in  destroying,  in  Tahua  and  Raiatea, 
every  Marae,  so  that  within  three  days  not  one  ves¬ 
tige  of  idol  worship  was  left ! 

John  Williams*  career  was  one  triumphal  progress. 
At  Savaii,  for  instance,  tears  of  joy  greeted  him; 
and  he  met  a  people  ready  formally  to  renounce 
paganism.  Malietoa,  the  chief,  begged  him  with  all 
speed  to  go  to  his  native  land  and  bring  back 
teachers.  How  pathetic  was  his  plea:  “Comeback 
as  soon  as  you  can ;  for  before  you  return  many  of 
us  will  be  dead.’* 

The  Maruans,  who  were  wont  to  trace  every  evil  of 
any  kind  to  bad  spirits,  turned  to  God,  and  proved 
the  sincerity  of  their  faith  by  ruined  Maraes  and 
broken  idols.  Spears  that  had  once  impaled  children 
and  borne  them  as  trophies  to  the  temples,  were  now 
turned  into  pulpit  balustrades,  and  Oro  and  other 
grim  idols  of  wood  were  used  as  props  to  common 
wood-sheds  and  cook-houses.  Unchaste  songs  and 
gestures  gave  place  to  hymns  of  praise  and  bowed 
knees. 

The  changes  which  the  apostle  of  the  South  Seas 
saw,  defied  description,  and  when  described  seem 
fables  for  the  credulous.  He  himself  was  overawed 
by  the  proofs  of  the  hand  of  God.  At  Tahiti,  over 
fourteen  years  had  gone  by  before  one  convert  was 
made;  and  at  New  Zealand,  twenty  years,  before 
there  seemed  to  be  one  honest  inquirer.  Yet  Will¬ 
iams  witnessed  changes  nothing  short  of  a  radical 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


119 


revolution,  within  twenty,  eighteen,  twelve  months, 
and  sometimes  within  as  many  days.  He  went  to 
islands  where  all  were  heathens;  he  visited  them 
.  later  to  find  chapels  with  thousands  of  worshippers; 
he  found  them  without  a  written  language,  and  left 
them  reading  in  their  own  tongue  the  wonderful 
words  of  God ! 

Williams  was  of  great  service  in  furnishing  ele¬ 
mentary  primers,  translations  of  the  gospels  and 
epistles,  and  creating  a  Christian  native  literature. 
He  trained  converts  into  evangelists,  who  made 
tours  among  the  surrounding  islands  until  no 
heathen  settlement  remained  un visited.  He  taught 
converts  the  grace  of  giving,  and  when  they  had  no 
money,  they  marked  their  pigs  or  other  possessions, 
with  the  Lord’s  sign,  and  sacredly  put  into  His 
treasury  whatever  they  brought  in  the  market. 

One  comprehensive  statement  may  serve  to  sum¬ 
marize  this  marvellous  story  of  apostolic  success. 
Five  years  before  he  fell,  no  group  of  islands,  nor 
single  island  of  importance,  within  two  thousand 
miles  of  Tahiti,  had  been  left  unvisited. 

This  martyr’s  death  was  doubtless  due  to  a  misap¬ 
prehension.  The  natives  of  Erromanga  had  come 
to  hate  the  sight  of  foreigners,  because  of  recent 
wrongs  at  the  hands  of  a  crew,  whose  vessel  touched 
at  those  shores.  But  history  has  her  unique  compen¬ 
sation  as  well  as  retribution.  Fifty  years  after 
Williams  fell,  the  son  of  his  murderer  was  laying 
the  corner-stone  of  the  martyr’s  memorial,  while 
another  son  was  preaching  the  gospel  for  which  that 
martyr  died ! 

Louis  Harms — The  Missionary  Pastor. 

1808-1865. 

This  man  was  another  of  God’s  pioneers,  but  his  per¬ 
sonal  field  was  the  parish  of  Hermannsburgh.  His 
divine  vocation  was  found  in  furnishing  an  example 


120 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES. 


of  what  one  man  and  his  congregation  can  do  in  the 
furtherance  of  the  world-wide  work. 

When  that  disabled  candidat  came  to  that  obscure 
parish  in  Hanover,  and  told  his  simple  tale  of  the 
wants  and  woes  of  the  heathen,  little  did  he  know 
that,  though  laid  aside  from  the  work  himself,  he  was 
there  lighting  a  fire  which  was  never  to  be  quenched, 
but  to  spread  far  and  wide.  When  the  heart  of  Pas¬ 
tor  Harms  was  kindled  with  new  zeal  for  missions, 
the  people  whom  he  led  felt  the  fire  burning  within 
them  also;  and,  though  but  a  few  and  feeble  folk, 
mostly  occupied  with  farming  and  such  like  work, 
and  too  poor  to  give  large  sums  of  money,  they  re¬ 
sponded  to  his  appeal.  He  said  first  of  all  to  him¬ 
self  and  to  them,  4  ‘  Why  should  we  not  help  missions?” 
This  question  soon  prompted  another,  “Why  may 
we  not  plan  missions  of  our  own?”  There  were  in¬ 
credulous  spirits  that,  like  the  Samarian  lord,  asked, 
“If  the  Lord  would  open  windows  in  Heaven,  might 
this  thing  be!  ”  But  faith  and  prayer  and  self-sacri¬ 
fice  prevailed,  and  a  moral  miracle  was  wrought. 

The  simple  Hermannsburghers  began  by  offerings 
of  money,  but  they  soon  found  it  easy  also  to  offer 
themselves.  One  man  gave  his  farm,  and  the  farm¬ 
house  became  a  training  school,  where  missionary 
candidates,  who  willingly  volunteered  for  service, 
began  to  be  educated  for  the  fields  abroad.  Then  a 
sailor  suggested  the  building  and  launching  of  their 
own  ship,  to  bear  their  missionaries  to  other  lands, 
and  sail  to  and  fro,  as  a  medium  of  communication ; 
and  so  the  Candace — first  of  mission  ships — was  built 
and  manned  by  themselves,  and  became  a  shuttle  to 
weave  threads  of  practical  contact  between  the 
Church  at  home  and  its  workers  abroad,  and  carry 
mutual  messages  of  love  and  sympathy. 

This  was  not  all.  While  sending  forth  scores  of 
men  and  women  to  be  its  heralds  and  tell  the  old 
story  of  the  cross,  the  Church  scattered  yet  increased, 
until  its  membership  reached  ten  thousand  and  it 


THE  NE IV  PIONEERS. 


121 


became  the  largest  Church  in  Christendom.  Not 
content  with  supplying  workmen  and  caring  for  their 
wants,  it  set  up  its  own  printing-press,  printed  its 
own  missionary  magazine,  and  thus  became  in  itself  a 
whole  board  of  missions,  with  its  own  training 
school,  mission  treasury,  vessel  and  periodical,  and 
all  the  apparatus  of  a  well-organized  and  thoroughly 
conducted  missionary  society ;  and  although  for  nearly 
thirty  years  Louis  Harms  has  been  dead,  the  work 
remains  to  witness  to  the  Church  and  to  the  world. 

That  one  man,  and  he  but  forty  years  old,  and 
with  a  simple  rural  parish,  should  start  such  a  work, 
has  been  a  problem  to  all  who  do  not  know  the 
power  which  comes  from  the  Spirit  of  God  in  answer 
to  prayer.  Though  the  undertaking  was  formally 
inaugurated  in  1849,  for  years  before,  the  foundations 
had  been  preparing  in  the  heart  of  Harms.  While  in 
charge  of  his  father's  private  school,  six  years  earlier, 
and  as  his  assistant  in  parish  work,  he  wielded  a 
sceptre  of  influence  over  the  people  which  showed 
him  to  be  one  of  God’s  anointed  kings.  Alike  in 
private  converse  and  public  address,  he  swayed  the 
hearts  of  those  poor  peasants.  When,  in  1844,  he 
became  his  father’s  assistant  and  was  ordained,  his 
hold  on  the  people  became  stronger.  His  holy  zeal, 
his  passionate  ardour  and  fervour,  his  intensely 
human  sympathy,  brought  him  into  close  contact  with 
their  hearts,  and  led  to  a  great  religious  awakening, 
which  was,  as  it  always  is,  accompanied  by  a  new 
missionary  spirit.  In  fact,  it  is  hard  to  say  which 
was  first  in  order  of  development;  for  Harms  had  so 
long  felt  the  leverage  there  is  in  missions  to  raise 
spiritual  life  to  a  higher  level,  that  he  sought  to 
arouse  new  interest  in  the  heathen  as  one  means  of 
raising  Church  members  to  a  higher  plane.  And 
when  thus  the  parish  had  been  made  ready,  it  was 
only  needful  that  the  external  circumstances  should 
favour,  in  order  for  the  work  to  be  actually  in¬ 
augurated. 


122 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


While  acting  as  his  father’s  assistant,  Louis  Harms 
felt  under  restraint,  but  at  his  father’s  death,  he  was 
appointed  pastor,  and  so  the  building  whose  base- 
blocks  had  long  been  laid  began  to  rise  toward  com¬ 
pletion. 

To  trace  the  history  of  the  Hermannsburgh  Society 
would  be  impracticable  within  these  limits,  and  would 
not  serve  our  present  purpose.  In  1890,  there  were 
some  sixty  stations,  with  a  total  of  about  three  hun¬ 
dred  missionaries  and  native  helpers.  But  it  does 
concern  us  to  learn  the  lesson  which  God  surely 
means  to  teach  by  this  new  chapter  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  If  a  single  Church,  under  the  leadership 
of  one  man,  and  he  broken  in  health,  a  chronic  in¬ 
valid,  and  his  people  for  the  most  part  only  the 
Lord’s  poor,  could  work  such  wonders,  who  shall  tell 
us  what  some  other  pastors  and  Churches  might 
achieve  for  God,  where  large  wealth  and  large  num¬ 
bers,  intelligence  and  culture,  social  influence  and 
every  other  help  and  encouragement  exist  to  assure 
a  wide  work  and  a  grand  result  ! 

Pastor  Harms  drank  in  the  missionary  spirit  in  the 
secret  place  where  God  dwells.  Prayer  brought  him 
very  close  to  that  heavenly  altar  where  God’s  own 
fires  eternally  burn,  and  the  angel  at  that  altar 
touched  with  a  live  coal  both  his  heart  and  his  lips. 
The  first  impulse  to  his  missionary  heroism  was 
found,  not  in  the  appeal  of  human  need,  but  in  the 
celestial  spark  which  needed  only  a  knowledge  of 
facts  to  find  ample  fuel  for  a  consuming  flame.  The 
man  who  knows  not'  how  to  pray  and  how  to  lead 
his  people  to  pray,  may  construct  an  organization, 
but  he  cannot  put  into  it  the  motive  power  that 
moves  its  machinery  and  makes  it  mighty  to  effect 
results.  Because  Louis  Harms  prevailed  with  God, 
he  also  prevailed  with  men.  He  took  the  great  facts 
about  a  world’s  need,  to  the  mercy-seat,  and  held 
them  up  in  the  light  of  the  Divine  Presence,  until  in 
the  mystic  Shekinah  fire  they  burned  and  glowed. 


THE  NE IV  PIONEERS. 


123 


Then  he  held  them  up  before  the  eyes  of  men  until 
he  compelled  others  also  to  feel  their  awful  force, 
and  until  indifference  could  no  longer  endure  to  con¬ 
front  them,  but  was  melted  into  zeal. 

Notwithstanding  the  poverty  of  his  peasant  parish, 
Harms  from  the  first  would  allow  no  canvassing  for 
funds,  and  modern  methods  of  appeal  and  of  raising 
money  have  always  been  repudiated  upon  principle* 
And  yet  money  has  been  provided  by  methods  and  in 
measure  surprising  to  worldly  minds.  The  enter¬ 
prise  that  had  such  obscure  and  unpromising  begin¬ 
nings,  was  scorned  by  the  wise  and  great  of  this 
world ;  it  survived,  however,  not  only  the  death  of  its 
founder,  in  1865,  but  the  schism  in  the  Hanover 
Church  thirteen  years  later,  and  the  deposition  of 
Theodore  Harms  in  consequence  of  his  loyalty  to  his 
conscience  in  refusing  conformity  to  the  customs  of 
the  State  Church.  He  was  followed  by  his  people 
in  his  independent  course,  and  thus  was  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  Free  Church  of  Hanover.  These  and 
many  other  causes  combined,  threatened  to  wreck  the 
mission  cause,  but  those  simple  Hermannsburghers 
have  persisted  in  their  devotion  to  the  work  of  God, 
and  the  society  is  still  sending  forth  its  messengers 
to  the  region  and  shadow  of  death. 

God  thus  writes  upon  His  shining  scroll  another 
name  unknown  to  fame,  as  men  rank  greatness; 
but,  like  Christ’s  forerunner,  great  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord,  and  one  to  whom  it  was  given  to  prepare  His 
way  among  the  people ! 

David  Livingstone — Africa’s  Pioneer.  1813-1873. 

The  hero  of  Blantyre  furnishes  another  example  of 
spiritual  heredity,  for  his  parents,  however  humble, 
were  devout,  and  his  father  bequeathed  to  him  both 
his  thirst  for  knowledge  and  his  spirit  of  enterprise. 
Though  at  ten  working  in  the  cotton  factory,  and 
there  continuing  for  fourteen  years,  David  was  so 


124 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


eager  to  learn  that  he  studied  Latin  by  night,  and  in 
his  daily  labour  gathered  up  the  smallest  fragments  of 
time,  often  less  than  a  minute — that  nothing  be  lost. 
“  Dick’s  Philosophy  of  the  Future  State  ”  kindled  his 
missionary  fervour,  and  then  he  got  a  medical  train¬ 
ing,  intending  to  go  to  China.  War  with  Britain 
closed  that  door,  but  “  Moffat’s  Appeal  for  the  Dark 
Continent  ”  opened  another,  and  so  in  1840,  he  sailed 
for  Kuruman,  little  suspecting  what  a  unique  career 
was  before  him. 

Livingstone  outranks  all  others  as  Africa’s  apostle. 
His  life  spans  but  sixty  years.  Converted  at  twenty, 
he  was  in  heart  and  aim  thenceforth  a  missionary; 
perhaps  no  life  since  the  Apostolic  age  has  poured 
forth  upon  the  feet  of  Jesus  more  of  the  costly  oint¬ 
ment  of  consecrated  service. 

He  was  a  man  of  such  singular  force  that  Sir  Bar- 
tie  Frere  thought  that  ‘ 6  any  five  years  of  his  life 
might  have  established  for  him  in  any  other  occupa¬ 
tion,  such  a  character,  and  raised  for  him  such  a  for¬ 
tune,  as  none  but  the  most  energetic  can  realize.” 
His  last  public  utterance  in  Scotland  gave  in  five 
short  words  the  double  secret  of  his  life:  “Fear 
God  and  work  hard.”  That  explains  his  thirty 
thousand  miles  of  travel  and  the  unrivalled  series  of 
discoveries  :  Five  lakes,  rivers,  falls  that  outrank 
Niagara,  high  ridges  that  flank  Africa’s  central  basin; 
that  motto  accounts  for  the  perseverance  that  searched 
into  the  geology  and  hydrography,  the  fauna  and  flora 
of  the  continent,  and  that  fought  the  two  great  foes 
of  man  and  beast — fever  and  tsetse — with  such  per¬ 
sistency,  that  he  declared  that  these  two  words  would 
be  found  at  death  graven  on  his  heart. 

Energy  weds  industry,  if  it  does  not  beget  it. 
Though  his  native  abilities  were  mediocre  and  his  early 
opportunities  meagre,  like  Carey,  he  could  plod.  Econ¬ 
omy  of  time  and  resolute  patience  were  the  steeds  he 
yoked  to  his  life-car,  and  so  he  made  such  progress 
as  even  genius  does  not  often  secure.  What  careful- 


THE  NE IV  PIONEERS . 


125 


ness  in  details  is  seen  in  that  famous  lined  journal  of 
eight  hundred  quarto  pages,  with  its  plain,  neat 
writing.  And  what  versatility  is  that,  akin  to  genius, 
which  makes  it  possible  for  one  man  in  turn  to  mas¬ 
ter  questions  such  as  the  desiccation  of  Africa,  the 
utilization  of  her  river  highways,  missionary  organi¬ 
zation  and  Bible  translation !  Book-making  alone 
failed  to  arouse  his  enthusiasm ;  it  was  a  mere  task, 
partly  from  the  long  exile  that  forbade  contact  or 
converse  with  white  men. 

Livingstone’s  services  to  the  race  are  too  great  for 
immediate  recognition.  What  he  was  as  a  scientist 
and  explorer,  traveller,  geographer,  zoologist,  botan¬ 
ist,  physician,  the  future  must  measure.  In  accuracy 
of  detail  few  have  ever  equalled  him.  His  astronomi¬ 
cal  observations,  exact  orientations,  and  manifold 
contributions  to  natural  science  in  all  its  great  de¬ 
partments,  show  a  many-sided  man.  He  could  tell 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  a  score  of  vegetable 
products  entirely  new  to  them ;  the  geographical 
society  decorated  him  with  their  gold  medal,  and 
three  cities  honoured  him  with  their  “  freedom.” 

As  in  all  mighty  men,  the  finest  elements  of  his 
character  crystallized  about  a  strong  will.  If  he 
failed,  it  meant  new  and  more  patient  trial.  “If  I 
live,”  he  said  in  1866,  “  I  must  succeed  in  my  under¬ 
taking;  death  alone  will  put  a  stop  to  my  efforts.” 
When  half  starved,  his  medicine-chest  stolen,  at  the 
mercy  of  foes  like  a  warrior  without  weapons,  and 
thrice  in  one  day  barely  escaping  death — not  one 
man  in  a  million  would  have  pushed  forward  as  he 
did  in  the  heart  of  Africa.  When  in  1872,  Stanley 
urged  his  return  with  him  to  England,  though  a 
strange  presentiment  weighed  upon  him  that  he  was 
on  his  last  journey  and  would  never  get  to  its  goal,  he 
flinched  not  in  his  resolve  but  pressed  on,  praying 
that  before  he  fell  he  might  work  out  his  purpose. 

He  was  a  man  whose  great  faith  in  God  was  the 
pole  star  of  his  life.  He  saw  that  great  crises  turn 


126 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


on  trifles  as  great  doors  swing  from  small  hinges, 
but  that  there  was  a  Divine  Workman  who  knew  how 
much  he  could  safely  hang  on  such  a  hinge ;  and  so 
he  was  wont  to  watch  the  seemingly  trivial  events 
that  shape  character  and  destiny.  And  on  what  ap¬ 
parent  trifles  Livingstone’s  career  turned !  the  chance 
reading  of  Dick,  the  appeal  of  Gutzlaff,  the  visit  of 
Moffat,  the  friendly  word  of  a  director  of  the  Lon¬ 
don  Missionary  Society.  One  text  gave  to  his 
spiritual  vision  telescopic  range  and  microscopic 
delicacy:  “  In  all  thy  ways  acknowledge  Him  and  He 
shall  direct  thy  paths.”  Under  such  guidance  trial 
and  trouble  were  God’s  angels,  calamity  was  His 
storm  signal;  and  that  nameless  sorrow,  which  in  his 
dear  Mary’s  death  smote  him,  only  drew  out  once 
more  his  6 ‘Fiat,  Domine,  Voluntas  Tua!” 

He  was  at  heart  simply  a  humble  missionary.  On 
that  altar  of  service  his  whole  self  was  laid,  and  bet¬ 
ter  to  know  and  meet  Africa’s  wants,  he  entered  that 
broader  sphere  that  unconsciously  made  of  the  mis¬ 
sionary  a  general  and  statesman.  He  saw  that  the 
true  plan  for  Africa’s  evangelization  must  be 
broad  enough  to  take  in  the  whole  continent  and  its 
whole  future.  Hence  he  sought  to  explore  and  de¬ 
velop  the  resources  of  the  country,  devise  facilities 
for  travel  and  traffic,  and  abolish  the  awful  curse  of 
slavery.  That  he  never  lost  sight  of  his  original  aim 
is  plain  from  hie  own  sage  saying:  “  the  end  of  the 
geographical  feat  is  the  beginning  of  the  true  enter¬ 
prise.” 

To  further  this  ultimate  end  he  was  willing  to  go 
anywhere,  provided  it  be  only  forward,  and  to  do 
anything  provided  it  were  preparing  the  whole  field 
for  the  harvest.  His  gauge  of  missionary  success 
was,  not  so  many  converts  per  pound  sterling,  but 
the  wide  diffusion  of  godly  principles — results  which 
no  statistics  can  exhibit. 

The  hero  of  Blantyre  was  Conscience  Incarnate. 
His  watchword  was  duty.  To  keep  his  word  and  do 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


127 


his  work  faithfully  was  the  double  law  of  his  life. 
But  duty  was  softened  by  love,  and  lost  all  asperity. 
And  it  was  one  of  God’s  gifts  to  him  that  his  sense 
of  humour  was  so  keen.  He  enjoyed  immensely  the 
superstitious  fright  of  the  natives  when  they  watched 
the  figures,  shown  on  the  screen  by  the  magic-lantern, 
mysteriously  appear  and  disappear;  and  the  Soko 
was  to  him  so  hideously  ugly,  that  he  could  conceive 
no  use  for  him  save  to  “  sit  for  a  portrait  of  Satan.” 

Livingstone’s  habitual  indifference  to  worldly  ap¬ 
plause  and  advantage  was  the  unique  trait  in  his 
character;  he  was  in  some  respects  the  counterpart 
of  that  Soudan  hero,  of  whom  Mrs.  Charles  says, 
“Not  that  he  tried  to  renounce  the  poor  prizes  of 
this  world;  like  Joan  of  Arc,  he  simply  did  not 
value  them.”  Money  was  to  him  no  bait,  and  he 
hated  to  be  lionized.  He  turned  his  back  on  the 
praise  of  men  and  would  not  even  read  what  was 
written  in  his  honour.  The  world’s  gold  was  tinsel, 
its  glory  a  fading  laurel:  he  was  after  what  was 
better,  and  he  got  it.  He  belonged  to  no  conven¬ 
tional  society:  his  citizenship  was  in  Heaven.  And 
when  in  that  little  grass  hut  at  Ilala  he  died,  alone 
with  God,  in  prayer  for  Africa,  as  Schmidt  had  before 
him — that  close  to  his  life  was  poetically  and  patheti¬ 
cally  fitting,  more  in  accord  with  all  that  went  before 
it  than  if  he  had  died  in  a  palace  amid  fawning  cour¬ 
tiers.  But,  as  a  martyr’s  grave  drew  Bishop  Heber 
to  Calcutta,  that  heart  that  is  buried  in  Africa  will 
yet  be  like  a  new  Mecca  to  thousands  of  pilgrim 
saints. 

Livingstone’s  self-oblivion  was  sublime.  The 
treasures  and  pleasures  of  Egypt  were  to  him 
nothing  if  he  might,  like  Moses,  lead  out  God’s 
oppressed  people  from  under  the  slave  yoke.  For 
Africa  he  could  spend  his  last  penny,  and  his  last 
drop  of  blood.  Such  was  the  man  whom  an  intimate 
acquaintance  pronounced  the  best  man  he  ever  knew, 
and  whom  history  already  crowns  as  Africa’s  best 


128 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


friend.  His  life  was  one  grand  sermon.  The  golden 
pen  of  action,  held  in  the  hand  of  resolve,  wrote  out 
its  sentences  in  living  letters  on  the  eternal  scroll, 
for  all  to  read.  Both  by  witness  and  suffering  he 
ranks  with  the  martyrs.  His  sacrifices  were  noble, 
though  he  declared  he  had  never  made  any;  yes, 
the  man  who  had  been  soaked  with  drenching  rains, 
had  made  his  bed  in  damp  grasses  and  his  food  out 
of  roots,  who  had  been  forty  times  scorched  in  the 
furnace  of  fever,  and  buried  his  wife  in  Africa’s 
bosom;  even  when  on  a  sick  bed,  without  human 
helper  and  in  a  horror  of  great  darkness,  neither 
talked  of  self-denial  nor  halted  in  his  work  for  Christ. 

No  wonder  if  his  master  passion  was  to  abate  and 
abolish  all  slavery  and  slave  traffic.  The  horrors  he 
saw  defied  description  and  made  him  feel  that  he  was 
in  hell.  Everywhere  he  sought  to  rouse  the  dormant 
Christian  conscience  to  the  devilish  atrocity  of  this 
crime;  and,  the  memorial  slab  in  the  great  Abbey, 
as  is  fitting,  mutely  repeats  his  memorable  words : 

“  All  I  can  add  in  my  loneliness,  is,  may  Heaven’s 
rich  blessing  come  down  on  everyone — American, 
Englishman  or  Turk, — who  will  help  to  heal  the  open 
sore  of  the  world!” 

Alexander  Duff — Pioneer  of  Education  in  India. 

1806-1878. 

The  remarkable  student  of  St.  Andrew’s,  from 
whom  this  Lectureship  takes  its  name,  combined  in 
himself  the  courage  of  Knox,  the  force  of  Chalmers 
and  the  fire  of  Erskine.  He  was  doubly  a  pioneer, 
for  he  was  the  first  missionary  of  the  Church  of  Scot¬ 
land  to  India,  and  he  led  the  way  in  higher  education 
among  the  Brahmans.  He  was  almost  equally  con¬ 
spicuous  as  an  orator,  an  organizer  and  an  educator. 
Twice  wrecked  on  his  way  to  India,  he  saved  his 
Bible  from  the  sea — a  fact  regarded  by  him  as  sig¬ 
nificant  and  symbolic  of  his  whole  life-work. 


THE  NE  IV  PIONEERS. 


129 


He  struck  out  upon  a  new  path.  The  corner-stone 
that  he  laid  he  himself  cleft  and  shaped  in  a  new 
quarry.  His  aim  was  to  open  up  to  the  native  Hin¬ 
dus,  not  only  purely  religious  truth  as  such,  but  to 
introduce  into  the  centre  of  the  Orient  the  science 
and  learning  of  the  Occident.  His  plan  was  novel, 
and  it  signalized  a  new  era  in  Indian  missions. 

A  new  idea  finds  slow  entrance,  especially  in  the 
religious  sphere,  for  all  new  coins  are  handled  with  sus¬ 
picion.  Duff  met  with  misrepresentation  and  oppo¬ 
sition,  but  his  school  stood  the  storm  like  a  cedar  of 
Lebanon,  and  fierce  winds  strengthened  its  roots  and 
toughened  its  boughs.  A  few  years  sufficed  for  his 
work  to  win  golden  opinions,  even  from  scholars  and 
princes.  After  five  years,  illness  drove  him  home, 
but  after  five  more,  he  came  back  to  find  seven  hun¬ 
dred  pupils  instead  of  the  few  with  which  he  started : 
and  when,  in  the  year  of  the  disruption,  his  lot  was 
cast  with  the  Free  Church,  and  his  college  passed 
into  other  hands,  he  began  anew,  and  organized  on  a 
new  and  ampler  scale  his  whole  educational  and  mis¬ 
sionary  work. 

Dr.  Duff  ranks  with  Carey  and  Livingstone  as  one 
of  the  great  missionary  triad  of  the  new  age.  He 
was,  on  Indian  affairs  and  Christian  missions,  an 
authority.  His  service  to  the  Church  at  home  was  as 
great  as  to  the  vast  Oriental  Empire  beside  the 
Ganges.  In  1834,  and  again  in  1849,  he  was  com¬ 
pelled  to  return  to  Scotland,  and,  in  1863,  to  abandon 
India^altogether ;  but  such  a  man  was  anywhere  and 
everywhere  a  missionary.  He  was  another  Peter,  the 
Hermit,  sounding  the  signal  of  the  new  crusade,  urg¬ 
ing  and  leading  God’s  people  onward  toward  a  nobler 
missionary  consecration.  He  twice  filled  the  Moder¬ 
ator’s  chair,  but  this  was  only  a  sign  of  his  hold  upon 
the  Free  Church,  and  no  man  since  Paul  has  done 
more  to  fan  and  feed  the  fires  of  a  holy  enthusiasm 
for  world-wide  evangelism. 

If  Duff  owed  his  pious  aptitudes  to  his  godly 


130 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


parents,  it  was  the  joint  influence  of  Chalmers  and 
Inglis  that  afterward  shaped  his  mind  for  work  in 
India.  Thomas  Chalmers,  in  1812,  before  the  Dun¬ 
dee  Missionary  Society,  had  held  up  the  inspired  Word 
and  the  living  herald  as  God’s  twin  agency  for 
spreading  the  gospel ;  and,  two  years  later,  before  the 
Scottish  Propagation  Society,  had  given  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  experience  to  the  utility  of  missions;  these 
sermons  left  impressions  on  young  Duff  that  could 
not  be  effaced — impressions  deepened  by  personal 
contact  with  that  greatest  of  Scotia’s  sons,  in  the 
University.  Then  when,  in  1825,  Dr.  Inglis  made  his 
fervent  plea  for  workers  abroad,  Alexander  Duff 
could  no  longer  stay  at  home ;  and  God,  who  in  Carey 
had  given  to  Schwartz  an  4  ‘  apostolic  heir,  ”  gave  in 
Duff  an  heir  to  Carey. 

For  the  period  of  a  whole  generation  he  carried  the 
assault  against  the  citadel  of  oriental  idolatry  and 
superstition,  instituting  new  educational  methods  for 
reaching  the  Brahmans,  founding  missions  not  only 
in  India,  but  in  Syria  and  the  New  Hebrides.  But 
even  this  grand  and  complex  achievement  is  perhaps 
surpassed  in  permanent  value  by  his  influence  over 
the  Church  of  Christ  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 
He  made  the  very  pulse  of  missions  to  beat  quicker, 
shaping  missionary  effort  and  moving  hundreds  to 
go,  as  well  as  tens  of  thousands,  to  give. 

Never  will  his  mission  tour  in  the  United  States  in 
1854  be  forgotten,  and  when  all  those  are  dead  who 
then  heard  him,  his  tracks  will  yet  be  left  upon  the 
history  of  American  missions.  His  short  career  was 
like  a  prairie  fire,  sweeping  hot  and  fast  over  the 
land.  The  enthusiasm  he  kindled  was  intense  and 
glowing.  At  a  time  when  material  interests  ab¬ 
sorbed  attention,  when  the  development  of  a  new 
territory  and  the  growth  of  a  young  Republic  en¬ 
grossed  thought,  he  widened  the  horizon  of  American 
disciples,  and  gave  such  impulse  and  impetus  to  work 
in  other  lands  as  no  man  since  has  ever  equalled; 


THE  NE  W  PIONEERS. 


131 


the  most  ardent  and  fervent  appeals  for  missions 
seem  but  as  a  faint  echo  of  that  clarion  voice  that 
shook  the  continent  forty  years  ago ! 

Perhaps  in  the  age  to  come,  Scotia’s  great  pioneer 
in  India  will  be  most  thought  of,  like  Raimund  Lull, 
as  a  great  missionary  advocate;  and  yet  he  had 
few  of  the  studied  arts  and  self-conscious  graces  of 
the  ideal  orator  or  finished  declaimer.  He  would 
not  have  been  set  up  as  a  model  of  rhetoric  or 
oratory ;  if  he  had  any  code  of  rules,  he  broke  the 
whole  decalogue  at  once.  His  gestures,  when  he 
used  any,  were  uncouth  and  grotesque.  His  muscles 
took  rigidity  from  his  mental  tension.  He  twitched 
his  forearm,  hitched  his  shoulder,  swung  his  long 
arm  around,  catching  up  and  holding  his  coat-tails, 
while  he  left  the  other  arm  free  to  do  the  pounding 
necessary  for  emphasis. 

But  his  unique  attitudes  and  motions  fitted  his 
unique  oratory.  For  hours  he  held  audiences  en¬ 
tranced.  Words  flowed  in  a  tumbling  torrent — a  tor¬ 
rent  of  fire.  Facts  stood  up  at  his  command  in  ranks 
and  regiments.  His  courageous  fancy  dared  the 
loftiest  flights,  and  his  contagious  enthusiasm  set  his 
whole  audience  aflame.  The  expense  in  vital  force 
was  immense,  and  left  behind  it  exhaustion  to  the 
point  of  peril ;  and  yet  he  did  not  roar  or  rant — it 
was  not  thunder,  it  was  lightning. 

He  was  a  master  of  climax.  His  long  sentences 
have  been  likened  to  an  auger  or  corkscrew,  boring 
into  the  minds  of  men,  at  every  turn  and  twist  bear¬ 
ing  down  deeper,  until  at  last,  as  when  a  cork  is 
withdrawn,  pent-up  feeling  finds  vent  in  tears,  in 
sighs,  in  shouts  of  applause.  To  take  down  such 
speeches  was  impossible.  As  well  attempt  to  report 
a  terrific  storm  at  sea,  with  cyclone  winds,  mountain 
waves  and  waterspouts,  varied  with  volcanic  explo¬ 
sions,  a  glorious  sunset,  and  concluding  with  an 
aurora  borealis  and  shooting  stars !  The  reporters 
gave  it  up,  and  with  heads  resting  on  their  hands, 


132 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


fixed  eyes  and  mouth  agape,  resigned  themselves  to 
the  charm  of  a  speaker,  who,  instead  of  having  to  say 
something  had  something  to  say. 

It  might  be  invidious,  among  thousands  of  illustri¬ 
ous  names,  to  assign  to  any  one  absolute  pre-eminence. 
But  in  more  respects  than  one,  Alexander  Duff 
shines  in  the  firmament  of  missions  as  a  star  of  the 
first  magnitude.  No  missionary  of  modern  times 
has  laid  on  God’s  altar  a  choicer  offering  of  genius. 
His  mind  was  at  once  like  Brougham’s  and  like  Can¬ 
ning’s;  as  a  convex  mirror  it  scattered  light  in  every 
direction;  as  a  concave  mirror  it  gathered  and  con¬ 
centrated  all  the  rays  into  one  burning  focal  point. 
With  a  memory,  a  store  of  information  and  a  versa¬ 
tility,  equally  marvellous,  his  sagacity  was  equal  to  his 
capacity,  which  is  still  more  uncommon ;  and  it  will 
take  more  than  one-half  century  to  dim  the  lustre  of 
that  name  which  has  made  so  glorious  the  record  of 
Scottish  missions. 

It  was  fitting  that  this  apostle  of  Christian  educa¬ 
tion  in  India,  one  of  the  originators  of  the  Calcutta 
Reviezv ,  one  of  the  founders,  and  for  years  the  vir¬ 
tual  governor,  of  the  University  of  Calcutta,  and  the 
most  eloquent  missionary  orator  of  this  century, 
should  leave  as  his  last  legacy  to  missions  the  corner¬ 
stone  upon  which  this  Lectureship  is  laid.  May  God 
make  it  ever  a  pillar  of  witness,  in  Duff’s  native  land, 
to  the  vital  need  of  missions  in  directing  and  develop¬ 
ing  the  life  and  power  of  the  Church  of  Christ ! 


III. 


THE  NEW  APOSTOLATE  OF  WOMAN. 

A  marked  feature  of  the  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
is  the  apostolate  of  woman .  From  the  day  when 
Gabriel  announced  to  that  Virgin  of  Bethlehem  her 
destiny  as  the  human  mother  of  the  Son  of  God, 
woman  has  taken  a  new  rank  in  history.  Mary  of 
Magdala,  to  whom  first  He  appeared  after  His  resur¬ 
rection,  was  a  forerunner  of  the  thousands  of  her  sex 
who  should  bear  the  good  tidings  of  a  risen  Saviour. 
That  outcast  of  Sychar  who  forgot  her  water-pot  and 
hastened  from  the  well  to  tell  even  the  men  of  the 
city  about  the  Messiah,  forecast  the  myriad  women 
who  should  forget  themselves  and  all  secular  cares 
in  the  ministry  to  souls. 

These  were  prophecies  of  woman’s  work,  and  have 
been  fulfilled  in  a  startling  manner  in  this  new  era. 
As  the  new  age  of  missions  moves  toward  the  final 
goal,  more  and  more  does  Christian  womanhood 
come  to  the  front.  To-day,  more  than  one-third  of 
the  entire  force  in  the  foreign  field  is  composed  of 
godly  women.  At  home  women’s  organizations,  the 
outgrowth  of  the  last  quarter  century,  have  had  an 
increase  so  rapid,  an  influence  so  wide,  and  an  im¬ 
pulse  so  forceful,  that  no  other  agency  compares  with 
them  in  value  and  virtue.  They  have  created  and 
scattered  cheap  and  attractive  leaflets  on  missions, 
stimulated  consecration  of  home  life,  and  trained  up 
a  new  generation  of  self-devoted  missionaries;  and, 
amid  all  the  variations  of  values,  and  crises  in  the 
money  market,  kept  up  a  constant  advance  in  the 
scale  of  gifts  to  the  Lord.  To  the  increased  activity 
of  these  women  who  still  follow  the  Master  and 
minister  to  Him  of  their  substance  is  mainly  owing 

133 


134 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


the  decided  advance  of  missionary  enterprise  during 
the  thirty  years  past. 

This  theme  demands  a  separate  treatment,  for  the 
field  it  opens  is  too  broad  to  be  otherwise  surveyed. 
The  bare  mention  of  the  names,  only,  of  the  holy 
women,  single  and  married,  who  have  adorned  the 
annals  of  modern  missions,  would  require  much 
space ;  but  to  attempt  even  the  briefest  sketch  of  the 
heroines  of  the  mission  field  would  demand  a 
volume.  In  some  cases  they  have  been  wives  and 
mothers,  like  those  three  grand  women  who  in  suc¬ 
cession  shared  the  work  of  the  devoted  Judson  in 
Burma,  and  one  of  whom  laid  the  corner-stone  of 
Siamese  missions.  Others  have  been  single  women 
like  Fidelia  Fiske  in  Persia,  Eliza  Agnew  in  Ceylon, 
Mary  Whately  in  Cairo,  Matilda  Rankin  in  Mexico, 
Mary  Graybell  in  India,  Clara  Cushman  in  China. 

Mary  Moffat  for  a  half  century  bore  with  her  hus¬ 
band  the  yoke  of  toil  and  sacrifice  among  the  Bech- 
uanas.  Maria  Gobat  for  forty-five  years  was  Samuel 
Gobat’s  invaluable  helper  in  Abyssinia  and  Malta, 
and  finally  in  the  bishopric  of  Jerusalem.  Hannah 
Mullens,  daughter  of  one  noble  missionary,  was  the 
wife  of  another,  and  has  left  her  lasting  footprints 
in  Indian  zenanas.  Judith  Grant  spent  but  four  years 
in  Oroomiah,  and  was  but  twenty-five  years  old  when 
she  died,  but  her  husband  found  that  her  life  was  the 
most  powerful  sermon  ever  preached  in  the  land  of 
Esther.  The  work  of  Mary  Williams  is  scarcely  less 
illustrious  than  that  of  the  martyr  of  Erromanga. 
When  Dorothy  Jones  at  twenty-four  years  of  age  re¬ 
turned  to  England  from  the  West  Indies  a  childless 
widow,  after  a  year  of  service  among  those  degraded 
negroes,  she  had  passed  through  a  shipwreck  whose 
frightful  agonies  had  distorted  her  face  beyond  rec¬ 
ognition,  yet  she  could  only  say,  ‘ 4 1  have  never  once 
regretted  engaging  in  mission  work.  ”  Anna  Hinderer 
spent  seventeen  years  by  the  side  of  her  beloved 
David,  in  the  Yoruba  country,  and  so  captivated  the 


THE  NEW  APOSTOLATE  OE  WOMAN. 


135 


women  that  they  almost  worshipped  her,  and  so  in¬ 
spired  heroism  in  her  converts  that  they  dared  tor¬ 
ture  for  Jesus*  sake.  Rebecca  Wakefield  spent  but 
three  years  in  Zanzibar,  but  her  heroic  fight  with 
hardship  and  privation,  and  all  the  foes  of  a  hostile 
climate  and  a  pagan  society,  won  for  her  the  crown 
of  a  courage  “  loftier  than  that  of  Joan  of  Arc.” 
Sarah  B.  Capron  not  only  took  equal  part  in  her  hus¬ 
band’s  long  service  in  India,  but  after  his  death 
trained  scores  of  Bible  women  for  zenana  work,  and 
has  now  given  her  maturest  days,  in  the  Bible  Insti¬ 
tute  at  Chicago,  to  the  training  of  candidates  for  mis¬ 
sion  work,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

Out  of  all  this  illustrious  company  of  women,  in 
the  field  of  missions,  we  take,  almost  at  random,  a 
few  names  as  examples  of  this  modern  apostolate  of 
woman. 

Hannah  Catharine  Lacroix  Mullens 

Was  born  in  India.  The  women  of  that  vast  penin¬ 
sula  were  therefore  doubly  her  sisters,  and  nobly  did 
she  redeem  the  debt  of  sisterhood.  As  a  girl  of  twelve 
she  was  already  about  her  “  Father’s  business,”  teach¬ 
ing  native  girls  at  Bhowanipore.  At  nineteen  she  be¬ 
came  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Mullens,  of  the 
London  Missionary  Society  in  Calcutta,  and  from 
that  time  forth  the  very  roots  of  her  being  struck 
deep  into  the  work  of  a  missionary,  and  absorbed  all 
her  energy.  Her  aid  in  her  husband’s  study  of  Ben¬ 
gali,  her  work  in  the  boarding-school  for  Hindu  girls 
and  in  the  Bible  classes  for  native  women,  her  sanctified 
pen,  fit  companion  to  her  anointed  tongue — all  these 
are  but  hints  of  the  varied  and  abundant  service  that 
made  that  life  overflow  with  usefulness.  She  has 
sometimes  been  called  the  pioneer  of  zenana  work; 
but,  before  her  day,  when  Rev.  John  Fordyce  was  in 
India,  the  movement  for  penetrating  the  closed  doors 
of  Hindu  homes  had  begun;  yet  Mrs.  Mullens  has  an 


136 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


indisputable  share  in  the  glory  of  securing  wider 
access  to  the  exiled  women  of  India,  and  of  winning 
them  to  Christ.  And  when,  after  sixteen  years  as  a 
missionary’s  wife,  she  was  suddenly  called  up  higher, 
at  the  early  age  of  thirty-five,  her  last  day  had  been 
spent  in  writing  a  book  for  the  native  women. 

Emily  Chubbuck  Judson. 

Long  before  “  Fanny  Forester”  had  met  her  hus¬ 
band,  her  zeal  for  missions  had  kindled  over  the 
memoir  of  Ann  Haseltine  Judson;  and  when,  in  1845, 
he  first  met  her  and  asked  for  the  service  of  her  grace¬ 
ful  pen  in  preparing  the  memoir  of  the  second  Mrs. 
Judson,  little  thought  either  of  them  that  the  inter¬ 
view  would  lead  to  marriage.  The  few  years  of  her 
experience  in  Burma  were  crowded  with  self-sacrific¬ 
ing  service;  and  when  in  1850  Dr.  Judson’s  fast  fail¬ 
ing  health  made  a  sea  voyage  needful,  though  she 
scarce  knew  how  to  breathe  apart  from  him,  and 
was  herself  in  an  apparent  decline,  she  heroically 
stayed  behind.  Left  with  three  children  in  her 
charge,  and  one  of  them  her  first-born  infant  of  two 
years,  and  expecting  within  one  month  her  second 
experience  of  maternity,  she  cheerfully  bade  her 
husband  farewell.  Three  weeks  after  he  sailed,  she 
gave  birth  to  her  little  “  Charles,”  and  soon  after  laid 
him  in  his  grave,  little  knowing  that  his  father  had 
made  the  sea  his  sepulchre  ten  days  before  his  infant 
son  had  departed ;  for  there  were  four  months  of  ter¬ 
rible  suspense  before  she  knew  whether  her  husband 
was  alive  or  dead.  Yet  she  leaned  hard  on  Jesus,  and, 
with  a  patient  heroism  which,  for  pathetic  interest,  is 
unsurpassed  in  the  annals  of  missionary  life,  ‘  ‘  endured 
as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible !  ” 


THE  NEW  APOSTOLATE  OF  WOMAN. 


137 


Mary  Chauner  Williams. 

John  Williams  always  said  that,  without  his  wife, 
he  knew  not  what  he  would  have  done.  Beside  all 
her  loving,  conjugal  and  maternal  ministries,  her 
lofty  spirit  made  radiant  even  the  most  menial  offices 
of  cook  and  housemaid,  and  withal  she  was  a  teacher. 
From  her  the  women  of  Raiatea  learned  the  arts  of 
household  life,  while  every  such  lesson  became  a 
channel  for  higher  instruction.  She  searched  out  the 
aged,  half  nude  and  altogether  despised  and  neglected, 
placed  them  under  proper  care,  and  led  many  of 
them  to  find  a  new  staff  for  their  old  age  and 
a  new  light  at  life's  evening-time.  The  younger 
women  she  diligently  taught  and  catechized  until 
they  were  trained  in  the  words  of  faith  and  good 
doctrine.  Whether  with  her  husband  in  his  “cir¬ 
cumnavigation  of  charity,"  or  staying  behind  to  care 
for  interests  that  would  suffer  in  their  absence,  she 
was  the  same  unmurmuring  servant  and  burden- 
bearer  of  the  *Lord:  and,  when  seven  of  her  babes 
were  sleeping  on  the  various  isles  of  the  Pacific,  this 
handmaid  of  the  Lord  could  still  say,  “  Be  it  unto 
me,  according  to  Thy  word!"  In  poverty  or  peril, 
sickness  or  suffering,  she  was  alike  undaunted  and 
undiscouraged.  Awakened  at  midnight  with  the 
awful  news  of  her  husband’s  tragic  death  at  Erro- 
manga,  and  while  so  prostrate  with  a  paralysis  of 
grief,  that  even  friendly  visits  of  sympathy  were  a  tor¬ 
ture,  she  admitted,  among  the  first  who  entered  that 
chamber  of  sorrow,  Malietoa,  the  chief.  He  was  him¬ 
self  overwhelmed  by  the  loss  which  put  all  Polynesia 
under  its  pall.  Frantically  he  appealed  to  her  not  to 
kill  herself  by  indulging  grief,  pleading  with  her  to 
live  for  the  sake  of  himself  and  his  poor  people,  and 
crying  out,  “If  you  too  are  taken,  O  what  shall  we 
then  do!" 


138 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Fidelia  Fiske. 

Born  the  same  year  that  Williams  sailed  for  the 
South  Seas,  at  twenty-seven  years  of  age  this  noble 
woman  went  to  reproduce  in  the  land  of  Esther  the 
system  of  instruction  which  at  Holyoke,  Massachu¬ 
setts,  made  Mary  Lyon’s  school  for  girls  so  famous. 
There  are  various  types  of  bravery,  and  none  more 
heroic  than  such  as  this  refined  and  delicate  woman 
-displayed,  as  for  Christ’s  sake  she  dared  the  un¬ 
utterable  filth  and  countless  army  of  vermin  encoun¬ 
tered  in  the  huts  of  Oroomiah. 

When  in  1843  she  arrived  in  Persia,  about  forty 
schools  had  been  opened  on  those  plains,  but  for  the 
most  part  reached  only  the  boys ;  and  the  girls’  school, 
that  Mrs.  Grant  had  founded  five  years  earlier,  had 
dragged  out  a  half  dead  existence.  It  was  for  this 
humble  daughter  of  Shelbourne,  niece  of  the  Syrian 
missionary,  Pliny  Fiske,  to  become  the  real  pioneer 
of  woman’s  education  in  Persia. 

God  laid  it  on  her  heart,  to  lift  up  out  of  the  hor¬ 
rible  pit  and  miry  clay  of  unspeakable  degradation, 
Nestorian  womanhood;  but  to  do  it  she  must  herself 
go  down  into  the  pit.  She  saw  that  to  raise  woman¬ 
hood,  she  must  first  lift  girlhood  to  a  higher  level. 
So  she  began  with  the  daughters,  and  courageously 
took  measures  to  gather,  into  a  family  school,  a  few 
whom  she  would  cleanse  and  clothe,  feed  and  train. 
She  sought  for  six  girls  with  whom  to  begin,  and, 
while  as  yet  she  knew  but  one  Syriac  sentence,  she 
used  that  to  beg  parents  to  4  ‘  give  their  daugh¬ 
ters.”  On  the  proposed  day  of  opening,  though 
fifteen  day  scholars  offered,  not  one  “boarder”  was 
secured.  Mar-Yohanan,  however,  came,  leading  two 
little  girls  of  seven  and  ten ;  and  to  this  first  ‘ 4  gift  of 
daughters”  additions  were  slowly  made  until  they 
numbered  twenty-five — all  she  could  then  accommo¬ 
date. 

Thus,  on  foundations  laid  in  prayers  and  wet  with 


THE  NEW  A  EOS  TOLA  TE  OF  WOMAN . 


139 


tears,  was  reared  that  New  Holyoke  which  has  been 
to  Persia  a  pearl  of  great  price.  For  sixteen  years 
she  carried  on  her  apostolic  work,  and  when  illness 
drove  her  home  her  one  wish  was  to  get  back  to  the 
land  of  the  magi.  Cancer  ate  at  her  vitals  until,  not 
yet  fifty  years  old,  she  died,  in  1864.  Yet,  while 
thus  weary  and  worn,  feeling  this  vulture  gnawing  at 
her  heart,  she  not  only  pleaded  ceaselessly  for  mis¬ 
sions,  but  actually  took  the  principalship  at  Holyoke, 
Mass.,  that  with  her  dying  hand  she  might  still  sow  in 
youthful  soil  the  seeds  of  missionary  consecration. 

Of  Fidelia  Fiske  the  venerable  secretary  of  the 
American  Board  has  said:  “  In  the  structure  and 
working  of  her  whole  nature  she  seemed  to  me  the 
nearest  approach  I  ever  saw,  in  man  or  woman,  to 
my  ideal  of  our  beloved  Saviour  as  he  appeared  on 
earth.” 

The  work  which  began  with  the  repulsive  task  of 
literally  cleansing  from  filth  and  purging  of  vermin 
the  very  bodies  of  Persian  girls,  found  its  reward 
when,  in  the  three  years  from  1844  to  1847,  an  outpour¬ 
ing  so  copious  visited  her  seminary  that  it  could  be 
compared  to  nothing  but  the  first  Pentecost.  All 
the  girls  above  twelve  years  were  converted,  and 
many  of  them  became  missionaries  in  these  Persian 
homes.  The  school  was  so  obviously  blessed  in  lift¬ 
ing  women  above  the  low  level  of  the  donkey,  and 
ennobling  that  character  which  is  the  secret  of  all 
betterment  of  condition,  that  persecution  only  showed 
its  worth  and  multiplied  its  supporters  and  so  made 
necessary  enlarged  accommodations.  During  the 
closing  days  of  Miss  Fiske’s  stay  in  Oroomiah  ninety- 
three  converted  women,  in  one  meeting,  greeted  her 
as  first-fruits  of  a  life  whose  motto  was,  “  Live  for 
Christ.” 

We  may  well  thank  God  that,  after  for  centuries 
being  kept  in  the  background,  Christian  womanhood 
is  finding  its  true  sphere  of  work,  and  wielding  its 
golden  sceptre  of  influence.  Missions  have  shown 


140 


THE  HE  tV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


the  normal  status  of  woman  in  the  Church  and  in  the 
world;  and  how  closely  her  identification  with  her 
Redeemer  is  also  linked  with  family  life  and  social 
life,  so  that  without  her  there  can  be  no  holy  household 
nor  reformed  society.  And  her  deep  sense  of  infi¬ 
nite  debt  to  Christ,  not  only  for  salvation,  but  for  her 
redemption  from  her  domestic  and  social  thraldom, 
prompts  her  to  undertake  a  mission  to  her  degraded 
sisters  in  pagan,  heathen  and  moslem  lands,  which 
can  by  no  one  but  a  Christian  woman  be  done  at  all. 
Perhaps  God  suffered  zenanas  and  harems  to  be 
locked  against  men  so  that  women  might  the  more 
feel  His  providential  call  for  their  service  tto  their 
sex. 

Woman’s  work  for  woman  no  human  gauge  can 
measure.  When  Dr.  Eli  Smith  of  Syria  was  giving 
theological  students  his  reasons  why,  ordinarily, 
a  missionary  should  take  a  wife,  he  spoke  not  only  of 
her  contribution  to  her  husband’s  home  comforts, 
and  her  power  to  shelter  him  from  moral  suspicion, 
but  he  added  with  earnest  emphasis,  that  the  wife 
often  does  full  as  effective  work  in  the  foreign  field 
as  her  husband,  and  that  nothing  is  needed  more,  as 
a  living  lesson  to  these  degraded  and  ignorant  idol¬ 
aters  and  victims  of  vicious  social  surroundings,  than 
the  practical  exhibition  in  the  Christian  woman  her¬ 
self  of  what  the  religion  of  Christ  does  for  her  as 
daughter  and  sister,  wife  and  mother.  The  common 
witness  of  the  most  heroic  and  successful  missionaries 
is  that  the  holy  lives  and  tireless  labours  of  devoted 
women  have  been  indispensable  to  the  highest  results 
of  missions.  There  was  a  time  when  woman  was 
regarded  as  little  more  than  man’s  helper,  if  not 
servant:  but  Paul  wrote,  “ Help  those  women  which 
laboured  with  us  in  the  gospel,”  as  though  they  were 
now  leaders,  and  the  men  were  to  go  to  their  help ! 


IV, 


THE  NEW  LESSONS. 

We  must  not  leave  this  department  of  our  great 
theme  without  looking  back  and  asking  what  new 
lessons  God  would  have  us  learn.  And,  first  of  all, 
this  history  of  modern  missions  has  been  writing  in 
large  letters  the  lesson  of  the  power  of  pious  parent - 
age. 

Rev.  J.  Murray  Mitchell,  LL.D.,  has  told  how 
he  once  ascended  to  a  high  summit  in  India  in  search 
of  the  source  of  the  Godivari  River:  how  at  last  a 
spot  was  reached  where  so  few  were  the  drops  that 
trickled  from  the  rocks  that  they  could  for  some  sec¬ 
onds  be  held  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand;  and  at  that 
point  one  could  in  a  few  moments  scoop  out  a  new 
channel  and  turn  the  whole  stream  in  a  new  direc¬ 
tion.  From  such  an  insignificant  rill  sprang  one  of 
India’s  noblest  rivers.  The  little  stream  he  saw,  flow¬ 
ing  down  the  slope  and  gradually  broadening:  then 
running  eastward  toward  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  growing 
wider  and  deeper,  gathering  volume  and  momentum, 
until  it  became  the  secret  of  fertility  to  thousands  of 
acres  otherwise  dry  and  desert. 

That  river  is  a  parable  of  human  life.  “The 
king’s  heart  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord,  and  he  turn- 
eth  it  whithersoever  He  will.”  He  who  learns  the 
secret  of  the  Lord,  like  Him,  gets  at  the  point  in  the 
stream,  near  the  heart,  where  life’s  issues  begin  to 
flow  outward,  and  where  character,  conduct,  history 
and  destiny  wait  for  a  shaping  hand.  Thackeray 
reminds  us  how  we  sow  a  thought  and  reap  an  act; 
sow  an  act,  and  reap  a  habit ;  sow  a  habit,  and  reap  a 
character;  sow  a  character,  and  reap  destiny.  So 
then  he  who  begins  back  where  thought  is  forming, 
moulds  the  seed  of  that  last,  eternal  harvest. 

141 


142 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


No  lesson  learned  from  these  lives  of  the  new  apos¬ 
tles  is  more  awfully  solemn  than  this :  They  prove 
to  us  the  power  of  spiritual  ancestry — the  faith  which, 
first  dwelling  in  a  godly  mother  or  grandmother,  has 
given  many  a  Timothy  to  the  field  of  missions.  The 
Samuels  are  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  Hannahs, 
and  the  pioneers  of  our  Lord  have  been  nur¬ 
tured  by  some  Zacharias  and  Elisabeth.  There  may 
be  no  inheritance  of  godliness,  but  there  is  certainly  a 
heritage  of  grace ;  aptitudes  are  transmitted,  if  charac¬ 
ter  is  not.  Let  every  father  remember  how  from  his 
loins  may  come  a  future  Judson  or  Marsden,  a  Williams 
or  Wilson,  a  Patteson  or  Hannington.  Let  every 
mother  think  how  the  child  she  bears  and  rears  may 
be  one  of  God’s  destined  kings  or  queens,  and  that  it 
is  her  hand  that  helps  to  give  shape  to  the  plastic  clay 
for  one  of  God’s  chosen  vessels.'  We  have  only  to 
remember  Ziegenbalg  and  Zinzendorf,  Schwartz  and 
Livingstone,  Paton  and  Mills,  Gulick  and  Scudder, 
Judson  and  Jessup,  Duff  and  Hudson  Taylor,  to  learn 
how  much  hangs  on  the  holiness  and  heroism  of  the 
parents,  if  the  children  are  to  become  holy  and  heroic. 

Another  lesson  taught  is  that  of  unrecognized  great¬ 
ness .  The  new  apostles,  like  the  old,  have  not 
always  been  recognized,  and  have  sometimes  been 
rejected,  by  their  own  generation;  and  this  lack  of 
appreciation  of  God’s  anointed  men  and  women  by 
their  contemporaries  is  one  of  the  significant  lessons 
of  the  N ew  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Carey  bore  the  sneers 
of  unhallowed  wit ;  Stoddard  was  charged  with  throw¬ 
ing  away  his  fine  culture  amid  Persian  wilds,  as  Liv¬ 
ingstone  was,  with  wasting  great  powers  amid  Afri¬ 
can  forests.  Williams  falling  at  Erromanga,  Han¬ 
nington  shot  on  the  borders  of  Uganda,  Mackay 
dying  yet  in  youth  among  the  cruel  savages  of 
Mwanga’s  realm,  Riggs  retiring  into  scholarly  seclu¬ 
sion  at  the  Golden  Horn,  and  three  peerless  women 
following  Judson  to  Burma — to  many  all  this  is 
sheer  waste ;  but  history  reverses  many  of  our  ver- 


THE  NE  W  LESSONS. 


143 


diets,  and  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ  will  reverse 
many  more. 

It  was  not  in  vain  that  Morrison  wore  the  queue 
and  burned  the  midnight  lamp  at  Canton,  that 
Wilder  “  buried  himself  ”  for  thirty  years  in  India, 
that  Carey  left  Leicester  for  Serampore,  that  Hunt 
exiled  himself  at  the  Fiji  group,  that  Patteson  fell  at 
Nackapu,  that  McAll  spent  his  last  twenty  years  in 
tireless  labours  amid  the  commune,  in  Paris. 

Again,  we  are  taught  obedience  to  the  will  of  God . 
The  plan  of  God  is  the  only  ultimately  successful 
scheme;  and  to  find  out  that  plan  and  fall  into  our 
place  in  it,  is  to  come  into  our  true  orbit  round  the 
Sun  of  the  universe — to  enter  into,  to  become  part  of, 
a  system  of  harmony  in  which  all  things  work 
together  for  good.  There,  all  things  are  ours,  even 
death  as  well  as  life,  things  present  as  well  as  things 
to  come — for  we  are  Christ’s,  and  Christ  is  God’s. 
Life’s  length  is  not  measured  by  its  years,  but  its 
yearnings,  its  prayers,  its  measure  of  unity  with  God 
and  conformity  to  His  purpose.  All  life  is  long  if 
it  reaches  the  goal  God  means  for  it. 

The  new  apostles  have  been  men  and  women  who 
have  sought  to  hear  God’s  voice  and  heed  divine 
visions,  and  move  along  the  lines  laid  down  in  the 
word  of  God — who  have  waited  God’s  time  and 
wrought  in  God’s  way.  The  founder  of  the  China 
Inland  Mission  heard  a  voice  plainly  saying  to  him, 
“  I  am  going  to  open  central  and  inland  China  to  the 
gospel,  and  will  use  you  if  you  are  ready  to  come 
into  My  plan;”  and  from  that  day  he  has  known  no 
will  but  that  will.  God  cares  not  for  the  many,  but 
He  uses  the  few  who  are  wholly  His — who  in  that 
calling  wherein  they  are  found  abide  with  God; 
whose  eyes  are  unto  His,  glad  to  be  guided  by  His 
eye,  and  needing  not  bit  and  bridle  and  rein  and  whip 
to  compel  them  to  obey  His  will,  like  the  dumb 
horse  or  stubborn  mule.  He  who  is  content  to  be 
drained  of  selfishness,  to  lose  himself  in  God,  as  con- 


144 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


tent  to  die  as  to  live,  if  death  means  life  to  others; 
ready,  like  Ignatius,  to  be  ground  between  teeth  of 
lions  to  make  bread  for  God’s  people — he  is  the  man 
upon  whom  the  Spirit  comes,  and  with  whom,  as  was 
written  of  Gideon,  He  “  clothes  Himself,  ”  as  a  warrior 
with  his  coat  of  armour. 

Yes,  the  inner  secret  of  service  is  the  sharing  of 
God’s  Spirit,  and  so  of  His  power.  Herbert  Spencer 
was  right,  for  “by  no  political  alchemy  can  we  get 
golden  conduct  out  of  leaden  instincts.”  Influence 
will  not  be  grandly  noble  when  character  is  basely 
ignoble,  and  all  efforts  to  make  up  in  culture  for 
what  the  soul  lacks  in  renewed  nature,  will  be  worse 
than  waste.  The  builder  should  not  construct  orna¬ 
ment,  but  ornament  construction ;  and  he  who  wants 
beauty  of  character  needs  only  to  see  that  there  is 
something  solidly  built  and  firmly  based,  on  which 
to  have  beauty  appear.  Otherwise  the  best  appear¬ 
ances  are  like  frost-work  on  the  window-pane  that 
melts  away  before  the  sunbeam. 

Again,  what  a  lesson  may  be  learned  from  the 
diversity  of  spheres  that  have  furnished  God’s  work¬ 
men.  Coleridge  at  Christ’s  hospital  felt  ambitious  to 
be  a  shoemaker’s  apprentice,  because  from  this,  more 
than  any  other  handicraft,  eminent  men  have  gone 
forth  to  serve  the  world.  Jesus  Christ  was  a  car¬ 
penter  at  Nazareth,  and  His  life  as  a  mechanic  was  a 
prophecy  of  the  host  of  those  who  from  the  workshop 
of  the  common  tradesman  would  go  forth  into  fields 
of  wide  usefulness  and  heroic  service.  Any  place 
may  furnish  training  and  any  tool  may  become,  like 
Moses’  rod,  God’s  means  to  work  His  signs.  The 
heart  needs  only  to  be  God’s — then  “  what  is  that  in 
thine  hand?”  A  shepherd’s  crook,  a  carpenter’s  ham¬ 
mer,  a  mason’s  trowel,  a  shoemaker’s  awl,  or  the 
needle  of  Dorcas, — these  God  can  use  as  well  as  the 
tongue  of  the  orator  or  the  pen  of  the  ready  writer, 
to  glorify  Him. 


Part  III. 


THE  NEW  VISIONS  AND  VOICES 


/ 


I. 


THE  LEADING  VOICE— THE  VOICE  OF 

THE  MASTER. 

“After  this,  I  looked,  and  behold  a  door  was 
opened  in  heaven ;  and  I  heard  a  voice,  as  it  were  of 
a  trumpet,  talking  with  me.” — Revelation ,  iv.  i. 

The  Apostolic  age  was  both  pictorial  and  vocal :  it 
was  an  age  of  visions  and  voices  of  God.  A  door 
was  opened  in  heaven.  Such  sights  the  eye  beheld, 
and  such  sounds  the  ear  heard,  as  left  no  doubt  with 
saints,  and  sometimes  with  sinners,  that  God  was  in 
close  touch  with  man.  As  through  a  rent  veil 
flashed  the  hidden  glory ;  and,  whether  the  sound  was 
that  of  a  trumpet,  or  of  the  “still  small  voice/’  it 
was  awe-inspiring  and  soul-subduing.  The  gospel 
message  itself  was  the  voice  of  God,  and,  as  was  fit¬ 
ting,  it  was  emphasized  and  accentuated  by  other 
utterances  clearly  divine.  Both  by  His  providence 
and  by  His  Spirit  He  spake  so  often,  so  loudly,  that 
the  whole  age  of  the  Apostles  echoed  with  these 
divine  voices.  In  effect  the  visions  were  voices,  for 
as  messengers  of  God  they  were  vocal,  only  that 
their  language  entered  the  city  of  Mansoul  through 
eyegate  rather  than  eargate. 

Not  even  in  the  time  of  the  ancient  Theophanies 
has  God  more  manifestly  appeared  and  spoken  to 
men.  Nor  were  these  visions  and  voices  vain.  They 
mark,  in  the  history  of  missions,  turning  points,  both 
critical  and  pivotal ;  hinges  whereon  the  golden  gates 
of  the  kingdom  hung  and  swung.  Nor  were  they 
meant  for  that  age  only.  A  mere  glance  at  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  shows  that  what  God  taught  the 
early  Church  was  a  lesson  for  all  time:  He  was  giv- 
ing  signs  and  signals  for  all  ages.  To  a  devout 
reader  this  book  records  and  reproduces  what  prim¬ 
itive  disciples  saw  and  heard,  somewhat  as  the  photo- 

147 


148 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


graph  and  phonograph  may  yet  serve  future  genera¬ 
tions. 

One  mark  of  the  close  analogy  between  the  age  of 
modern  missions  and  that  of  the  Apostolic,  is  found 
in  the  new  visions  and  voices  of  God,  which  though 
less  characterized  by  the  purely  miraculous  or  super¬ 
natural  element  are  no  less  unmistakable  in  their 
purpose  and  purport.  Every  page  of  these  new 
chapters  is  thus  illustrated  and  explained  by  the 
Divine  Teacher;  and  the  fact  is  both  curious  and 
significant  that  the  main  lessons,  thus  taught  the 
Church  in  our  day,  follow  the  same  lines  as  those  of 
that  first  century.  The  Heavenly  Schoolmaster,  like 
the  earthly,  finds  needful  to  use  repetition  for  the 
sake  of  impression;  and  so,  after  the  long  interval 
of  centuries,  we  are  still  in  God’s  school,  learning  the 
same  old  lessons  from  the  same  old  text-book,  only 
it  is  a  new  edition  with  notes  by  the  Author,  illu¬ 
mined  by  new  illustrations,  its  teaching  enforced  and 
vivified  by  new  arguments  and  appeals. 

The  first  voice  we  hear  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
is  that  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Himself.  His  words  have  a 
double  value ;  as  His  last  words  before  He  was  taken 
up,  they  form  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  His  pre¬ 
vious  teaching;  and  as  His  first  words  before  the  new 
age  of  missions  opens,  they,  like  a  table  of  contents, 
give  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  history  that  is  to 
follow.  All  other  voices  and  visions  found  in  this 
book  are  meant  to  fix  in  the  minds  of  believers  what 
they  saw  and  heard  when  the  Lord  last  appeared 
unto  them  before  His  ascension, — to  echo,  explain, 
amplify,  illustrate  His  great  commission.  Because 
every  word  that  He  then  spake  is  a  little  world  full 
of  meaning,  let  us  write  His  farewell  message  in  large 
letters : 

< *  DEPART  NOT  FROM  JERUSALEM, 

BUT  WAIT  FOR  THE  PROMISE  OF  THE  FATHER 
WHICH  YE  HAVE  HEARD  OF  ME; 


THE  VOICE  OF  THE  MAS  TEE. 


149 


FOR  JOHN  TRULY  BAPTIZED  WITH  WATER, 

BUT  YE  SHALL  BE  BAPTIZED  WITH  THE  HOLY  GHOST, 
NOT  MANY  DAYS  HENCE. 

YE  SHALL  RECEIVE  THE  POWER  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST 
COMING  UPON  YOU, 

AND  YE  SHALL  BE  WITNESSES  UNTO  ME 

BOTH  IN  JERUSALEM  AND  IN  ALL  JUDEA, 

AND  IN  SAMARIA, 

AND  UNTO  THE  UTTERMOST  PART  OF  THE  EARTH.” 

Here  then  is  the  loud  and  leading  voice  of  the 
Apostolic  age,  and  how  majestic  and  commanding! 
In  this  final  word  of  our  ascending  Lord  three  things 
stand  out  conspicuous  like  lofty  peaks  against  the 
horizon : 

First,  the  work  of  witness  is  the  duty  of  the 
whole  Church.  Second,  the  field  of  witness  is  the 
territory  of  the  whole  world.  Third,  the  force  of 
witness  is  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Again  we  affirm  it,  this  farewell  message  is  all- 
comprehensive.  From  it  was  omitted  nothing  vital 
to  the  Church’s  great  mission;  to  it  nothing  has  been, 
or  can  be,  added.  The  keynote  is  struck,  and  the 
divine  melody  is  sung ;  all  that  follows  is  but  a  varia¬ 
tion  upon  this  theme,  the  harmony  which  only  makes 
more  conspicuous  the  melody.  The  chapters  that 
succeed  add  only  emphasis  to  this  first  chapter,  and 
so  it  will  be  of  the  unwritten  records  yet  to  follow ; 
every  failure  or  success  in  our  mission  work  only 
gives  fresh  force,  heavier  stress,  to  this  great  message 
of  the  departing  Master. 

Immediately,  with  but  ten  days  of  interval,  the 
farewell  word  of  the  Lord,  and  the  promise  of  the 
Father,  find  fulfilment  in  the  outpouring  of  the 
Spirit.  Pentecost  was  both  a  vision  and  a  voice, 
emphasizing  and  confirming  what  Jesus  had  said. 

The  work  of  witness  now  began.  Hundreds  of 
tongues,  like  a  chorus  of  silver  trumpets  of  jubilee, 
proclaimed  in  unison  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord; 


150 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


and,  although  at  times  this  work  has  suffered  con¬ 
traction  through  unbelief  and  worldliness,  it  has 
never  entirely  ceased,  nor  will  it,  until  the  end  of  the 
age. 

The  field  of  witness  now  began  to  be  first  seen  in 
its  true  length  and  breadth.  Peter  officially  said, 
‘ ‘  The  promise  is  unto  you  and  unto  your  children, 
and  to  all  that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord 
our  God  shall  call.”  And  this  he  spake  not  of  him¬ 
self  ;  he  had  little  conception  of  the  meaning  of  his 
own  words,  as  subsequent  events  prove.  It  was  the 
voice  of  the  Spirit,  repeating  and  enlarging  the  cove¬ 
nant  promises  of  a  former  dispensation;  repeating 
them  for  the  sake  of  Jewish  believers;  enlarging 
them  for  the  sake  of  the  gentiles,  who  had  hitherto 
been  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel  and 
strangers  from  the  covenants  of  promise.  Christ 
had  made  the  field  of  witness  to  embrace  the  utter¬ 
most  part  of  the  earth ;  and  so  now  the  Spirit  leads 
Peter,  still  fettered  with  Jewish  exclusiveness,  to 
add,  “and  to  as  many  as  are  afar  off!  ”  The  golden 
links  of  prophecy  connect  the  Hebrew  race  with  a 
larger  grace,  that  is  to  touch  the  whole  family  of 
man.  And  so  this  same  Peter  was  led,  a  little  later, 
to  say  to  the  unbelieving  Jews,  “  Repent  ye,  there¬ 
fore,  and  be  converted,  so  that  times  of  refreshing 
may  come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord.”  The 
reclamation  and  restoration  of  God’s  elect  people  is 
a  condition,  preliminary  and  preparatory,  to  that  last 
great  time  of  refreshing  which  is  to  come  upon  all 
flesh.  In  Abraham’s  “  seed  shall  all  the  kindreds  of 
the  earth  be  blessed !  ”  but  that  promise  made  to  the 
father  of  the  faithful  will  be  fulfilled  only  when 
Abraham’s  seed,  receiving  the  Messiah  they  despised 
and  rejected,  become  witnesses  to  the  nations.  And 
so  Paul  adds  his  testimony  to  Peter’s:  “  Now,  if  the 
fall  of  them  be  the  enriching  of  the  world,  and  their 
diminishing  the  enriching  of  the  gentiles,  how  much 
more  their  fulness!  For,  if  their  rejection  be  the 


THE  VOICE  OF  THE  MAS  TEE. 


151 


reconciling  of  the  world,  what  shall  the  receiving  of 
them  be  but  life  from  the  dead.” — Romans ,  xi.  12-14. 

The  field  of  witness  was  not  only  now  first  seen 
to  be  the  world,  but  in  a  peculiar  way  its  occupation 
began.  From  every  quarter  of  the  inhabited  globe 
had  gathered  those  representatives  who,  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  received  the  word  and  the  blessing;  and 
going  back  to  their  far-off  and  widely  separated 
abodes  they  naturally  became  witnesses  unto  the 
peoples  among  whom  they  dwelt.  The  sheaf  of 
first-fruits  thus  laid  on  that  Pentecostal  altar,  sup¬ 
plied  seed  for  the  sower  to  scatter  in  regions  beyond. 

The  power  of  witness  was  now  for  the  first  time 
revealed  in  its  fulness.  Pentecost  emphasized  our 
Lord’s  words  by  bringing  the  promised  baptism,  the 
chrism  of  power,  the  nameless  charm  and  virtue 
which  make  all  witness  effective.  Then  began  the 
great  endowment  and  enduement,  so  indescribable 
yet  indispensable;  through  human  tongues  the  Holy 
Spirit  spake,  with  a  demonstration  of  truth  far  be¬ 
yond  all  the  demonstration  of  logic,  making  simple 
witness  to  Christ  to  accomplish  what  all  the  wisdom 
of  the  schools  has  never  been  able  to  effect.  And, 
from  that  day  onward  the  secret  of  power  to  testify 
for  God,  to  convince  and  persuade  men,  has  been  the 
same,  namely,  to  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We  have  thus  seen  that  the  first  two  chapters  of 
the  Acts  furnish  the  key,  not  only  to  this  book,  but 
to  all  missionary  history.  Our  Lord’s  last  words 
describe  the  work  of  witness,  define  the  field  of  witness, 
and  reveal  the  force  of  witness;  and  the  third  per¬ 
son  of  the  Trinity  adds  His  confirmation  of  the  word  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  by  leading  disciples  to  begin  the  work, 
to  enter  the  field,  and  to  use  the  power.  Where  God 
thus  teaches  three  lessons,  and  stamps  them  as  of 
such  supreme  importance,  it  must  be  our  duty  to 
learn  them  thoroughly.  We  therefore  tarry  to  study 
them  with  more  care  and  closeness  of  application. 


II. 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES. 

This  first  lesson  taught  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos¬ 
tles,  that  the  work  of  witness  belongs  to  the  whole 
Church ,  dominates  the  book;  so  emphatically,  so 
repeatedly  enforced,  that  it  must  constitute  one,  if 
not  the  only,  design  of  its  records. 

Those  who  believed  were  from  the  first  sent  forth 
as  witnesses.  It  is  of  the  very  genius  of  Christianity 
that  it  implies  and  compels  testimony;  “  I  believed 
and  therefore  have  I  spoken;  we  also  believe  and 
therefore  speak.”  This  is  not  only  the  logic  of  mis¬ 
sions;  it  is  the  logic  of  spiritual  life.  The  Church 
of  God  is  an  army,  always  to  be  mobilized  in  readi¬ 
ness  for  action, — more  than  this,  always  in  action. 
Livingstone  said,  “The  spirit  of  missions  is  the 
Spirit  of  our  Master;  the  very  genius  of  our  religion. 
A  diffusive  philanthropy  is  Christianity  itself.  It 
requires  perpetual  propagation  to  attest  its  genuine¬ 
ness.” 

How  far  this  conception  of  a  witnessing  Church  is 
the  controlling  law  in  the  structure  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  only  careful  search  will  show. 

The  introduction  to  this  book  refers  to  that  “forty 
days”  of  communion  between  the  risen  Lord  and 
His  disciples,  the  object  and  result  of  which  were 
fourfold : 

First,  to  leave  in  them  no  doubt  of  the  fact  of  His 
resurrection ;  secondly,  to  give  them  instruction 
touching  the  Kingdom  of  God;  thirdly,  to  prepare 
them  for  His  unseen  presence  and  guidance;  fourthly, 
to  inspire  them  with  the  true  Spirit  of  missions. 

Then,  as  soon  as  the  Spirit  was  outpoured,  we 
find  the  bold  outlines  of  early  Church  history  con¬ 
fronting  us,  the  record  of  active,  aggressive  testi- 

152 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES. 


153 


mony,  pushing  its  lines  from  Jerusalem  into  all 
Judea,  then  into  Samaria,  and  so  farther  and  farther 
into  the  remotest  regions  beyond. 

1.  The  witnessing  Church  at  Jerusalem  and  Judea. 
Chapter  i.  13  to  vii. 

Ten  days  of  prayer  are  followed  by  the  Pentecostal 
enduement  for  service,  persecution  by  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees,  Stephen’s  martyrdom,  and  the  dispersion 
of  disciples;  the  voluntary  community  of  goods, 
division  of  work,  and  the  institution  of  the  diac- 
onate. 

2.  The  witnessing  Church  in  Samaria.  Chapter  viii. 

Under  Philip,  the  evangelist-deacon,  Samaria  re¬ 
ceives  a  blessing,  essentially  a  repetition  of  the  Pen¬ 
tecost  at  Jerusalem. 

3.  The  witnessing  Church  moving  toward  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth.  Chapter  ix.  to  the  close. 

The  conversion  of  the  eunuch  represents  evangel¬ 
ism  begun  in  Ethiopia;  and  that  of  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
the  chosen  apostle  to  the  gentiles,  raises  up  the 
greatest  evangelist  the  world  has  ever  seen,  whose 
especial  passion  it  is  to  reach  the  regions  beyond. 
Among  the  Romans  at  Cesarea,  then  among  the 
Greeks  at  Antioch  and  at  Ephesus,  Pentecostal  bless¬ 
ings  descend  with  marvellous  signs  and  wonders; 
and  the  first  gentile  Church  formed  at  Antioch 
becomes  the  starting  point  for  foreign  missions. 
Paul’s  three  mission  tours,  with  their  ever  widening 
circles,  are  outlined,  and  the  book  closes  with  the 
Cilician  apostle  teaching  and  preaching  at  Rome,  the 
third  great  centre  of  Christianity. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  Acts,  Paul  comes  to  the 
front,  while  Peter  disappears  entirely.  The  reason 
is  plain.  The  obvious  object  of  the  book  is  to  trace 
the  beginnings  of  missions  to  the  nations  of  the  wide 
world.  To  Peter  it  was  given  to  unlock  the  door  of 
faith,  first  to  Jews  and  then  to  gentiles;  then  he  goes 
to  the  dispersion  or  scattered  tribes  of  Israel;  and 
Paul,  whose  commission  is  to  the  nations  at  large, 


\  \ 


154 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


the  typical  world-missionary,  naturally  becomes  the 
main  actor  in  the  scene. 

Attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  fact,  that 
Luke  treats  both  the  gospel  which  he  wrote  and  this 
book  of  which  he  is  the  declared  author,  as  parts  of 
one  connected,  continuous,  complete  narrative.  A 
careful  study  will  show  the  links  of  unity.  The  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  Spirit,  in  these  two  sketches,  is  to  outline 
gospel  history  from  its  infancy  in  its  humble  Judean 
cradle  to  its  mature  growth  as  a  world-wide  power; 
to  trace  the  seed  of  the  kingdom,  first  sown  on  Syrian 
soil,  then  scattered  widely  beside  all  waters  and 
borne  upon  the  various  streams  of  civilization  to  the 
heart  of  the  heathen  world. 

Thus,  from  first  to  last,  this  combined  narrative  is 
the  story  of  missions.  In  the  gospel  our  Lord  offers 
the  good  news  to  the  Jews;  and  then  seeing  their 
actual  rejection  of  Him  and  foreseeing  their  con¬ 
tinued  refusal  of  His  message,  He  commands  and 
commissions  His  disciples  to  go  everywhere  and  wit¬ 
ness  to  every  creature.  In  the  Acts  we  see  the  com¬ 
mission  and  command  actually  carried  out ;  the 
preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  Jews  by  both  Peter 
and  Paul,  and  its  repeated  rejection  by  them;  with 
its  subsequent  and  consequent  proclamation  to  man¬ 
kind  as  such  at  the  great  centres  of  population. 

The  Gospel  according  to  Luke  opens  with  Christ’s 
incarnation,  and  closes  with  His  resurrection  and 
ascension.  The  promise  of  enduement  with  power 
“not  many  days  hence,”  is  the  last  link  left  to  con¬ 
nect  with  the  after  narrative.  In  the  Pentecostal 
fires  the  new  links  are  forged  for  this  chain  of  events, 
and  so  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  joins  on  to  the  gos¬ 
pel,  beginning  with  the  natal  day  of  the  Church  at 
Pentecost  and  ending  with  Paul’s  work  at  Rome. 

Now,  confining  our  gaze  to  the  Acts,  as  a  whole, 
we  observe  at  least  ten  marked  features,  all  indicat¬ 
ing  the  mission,  committed  to  the  whole  Church,  of 
a  world-wide  witness. 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES. 


165 


1.  The  waiting  for  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  endue- 
ment  from  on  high  was  also  an  endowment,  fitting 
for  the  work  of  witness;  the  type  of  other  effusions 
which  followed  and  which  indicated  that  not  only 
Jewish  converts  but  gentile  believers  also  were  to  be 
thus  endued  and  endowed. 

2.  The  substance  of  this  witness  was  Christ  cruci¬ 
fied,  risen,  exalted  and  glorified,  as  the  only  Saviour; 
pointed  prominence  being  given  to  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  prophecies  and  the  exact  correspondence  of 
New  Testament  history;  and  to  that  glorious  second 
Coming  of  our  Lord  which  is  to  put  the  capstone 
upon  all  prophecy  and  history.  The  book  is  full  of 
Christ,  Messiah  foretold,  Saviour  revealed. 

3.  The  resolute  persistence  of  Christ’s  witnesses  in 
face  of  organized  opposition.  The  Jews  led  by 
Sanhedric  rulers,  the  gentiles  led  by  such  as  the 
Ephesian  Demetrius,  drive  disciples  to  face,  if  not 
to  fight,  that  worst  of  all  wild  beasts,  the  mob. 
Persecution  bares  her  red  right  arm  and  whets  her 
cruel  sword,  warning  disciples  what  price  they  must 
pay  for  free  speech.  But  they  ‘ 4  cannot  but  speak 
the  things  which  they  have  seen  and  heard.”  And 
so  this  story  of  the  Acts  becomes  the  first  book  of 
Christ’s  martyrs.  Stephen’s  angel  smile  shines  amid 
a  hail  of  stones.  James’  head  drops  under  the  axe 
of  Herod  Agrippa.  Peter,  kept  for  a  like  fate  by 
the  same  despot,  is  loosed  from  prison,  at  the  beck 
of  One  before  whom  even  iron  fetters  fall  and  iron 
gates  open  of  their  own  accord.  Yet  neither  can 
bribe  nor  force  stop  the  mouth  of  Christ’s  witnesses. 
God  is  obeyed  and  man  is  defied. 

4.  Church  life  itself  is  moulded  by  this  mission  to 
mankind.  Believers  so  commonly  accept  this  work  of 
witness  that  personal  and  private  interests  are  merged 
into  this  wider  and  nobler  service.  The  community 
of  privilege  and  responsibility  is  emphasized  by  a 
more  remarkable  community  of  goods.  With  an 
unselfishness  that  has  no  other  example  in  history, 


156 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


believers  part  with  worldly  possessions  and  pour  the 
proceeds  into  a  common  fund,  to  be  distributed 
according  to  the  wants  of  each  and  all.  Not  only 
duties  but  burdens  are  shared  alike. 

5.  The  witnesses  disperse  more  and  more  widely. 
Those  who  were  sojourners  in  Jerusalem  went  back 
to  their  separate  abodes  with  the  new  message  of 
life  burned  into  their  souls  by  the  Spirit’s  fire,  and 
burning  on  their  tongues ;  and  so  light  began  to  shine 
in  the  darkness.  If  we  may  trust  tradition,  the 
eunuch  whom  Philip  guided  to  the  blood  of  the  Lamb 
and  the  water  of  baptism,  founded  the  Church  of 
Alexandria  and  baptized  his  own  queen.  The  con¬ 
verted  blasphemer  from  Tarsus,  swept  over  a  wider 
and  wider  arc,  until  his  mission  tours  touched  not 
only  Ephesus,  Athens,  Corinth  and  Rome,  but  possi¬ 
bly  Spain  and  Britain. 

6.  The  open  secrets  of  Apostolic  success  may  be 
read  upon  every  page  of  this  short  story.  Apostolic 
activity  moves  toward  its  goal  of  world-wide  missions 
with  so  rapid  strides,  that  in  one  generation  it  reaches 
the  remotest  parts;  yet  it  treads  no  strange  road. 
All  along  the  way  God’s  lights  are  hung,  that  he  who 
will  may  follow.  How  simple  the  methods  of  work! 
Childlike  faith  in  the  promise  of  God  and  the  power 
of  His  word  and  Spirit;  believing  and  united  prayer 
that  laughs  at  the  giant  Anakim  with  their  chariots 
of  iron,  and  cares  not  for  high  walls  and  strong  gates, 
and  foes  many  and  mighty ;  a  heroic  obedience  that 
asks  only  for  “  marching  orders,”  and  then  dares  all 
obstacles  and  opposers,  moving  on  into  the  4 ‘valley 
of  death,”  to  “do  and  die ” — such  are  the  simple  clew 
to  the  whole  maze  and  mystery  of  Apostolic  missions. 

7.  The  unseen  divine  presence  pervades  the  whole 
history.  To  Christ’s  last  command  was  closely 
linked  a  last  promise,  “  Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the 
days,  even  to  the  end  of  the  age.”  This  book  is  the 
record  of  the  fulfilment  of  that  promise.  Wonder¬ 
working  miraculous  signs,  divine  interpositions,  so 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DLSCLPLES. 


157 


abound  that  the  uncommon  becomes  common,  and 
the  supernatural  seems  no  more  unnatural.  As  we 
cross  the  threshold  of  the  story  we  meet  the  tongues 
of  flame  that  tell  the  power  of  God;  then  each  chap¬ 
ter  is  a  new  chamber  of  marvels.  The  healing  of  the 
lame  man,  of  the  divining  damsel,  of  Eneas  at 
Lydda;  the  raising  of  dead  Dorcas;  the  healing  vir¬ 
tue  that  invests  the  body  of  Paul  and  the  shadow  of 
Peter;  the  prison  doors  thrice  opened,  twice  by  the 
angel,  once  by  the  earthquake  as  God’s  angel ;  mir¬ 
acles  of  judgment  as  well  as  deliverance;  Elymas  be¬ 
ing  blinded,  and  Ananias,  Sapphira  and  Herod  struck 
dead; — at  every  step  we  tread  on  enchanted  ground. 

8.  The  power  of  the  gospel  is  everywhere  conspic¬ 
uous.  Sinners  are  converted  sometimes  as  in 
masses;  saints  are  edified  and  educated,  and  the 
body  of  Christ  grows  strong.  Even  those  who  are 
neither  converted  nor  convicted  seem  compelled  to 
hear  and  to  make  some  decision;  they  may  not  bow 
to  Christ,  but  they  cannot  maintain  the  stolid  apathy 
of  indifference.  Stephen’s  stoners  are  cut  to  the 
heart,  for  his  words  are  swords;  Felix  says  “go  thy 
way,”  but  he  “trembles;”  Agrippa  will  not  yield 
but  is  “almost  persuaded.”  Those  who  “gnashed 
on  him  with  their  teeth  ”  “  could  not  resist  the  wis¬ 
dom  and  the  spirit  with  which  ”  the  first  martyr 
spake;  and  Saul,  who  stood  by  consenting  to  their 
deed,  never  forgot  that  shining  face  which  prepared 
him  for  the  glory  that  smote  him  near  Damascus ! 

9.  This  is  the  book  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Throughout, 
there  runs  the  stream  of  His  subtle,  unseen,  mysteri¬ 
ous,  resistless  working.  Omniscience,  omnipotence, 
omnipresence,  find  here  the  field  for  their  display, 
promising  and  prophesying  similar  results,  whenever 
and  wherever  like  conditions  obtain.  Here  God 
shows  that  in  grace  as  in  nature  He  has  chosen  chan¬ 
nels  for  His  power  and  energy,  and  if  those  channels 
are  not  obstructed,  He  who  is  the  same  yesterday 
and  to-day  and  forever,  will  still  work  wonders. 


158 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


io.  No  undue  emphasis  is  here  laid  on  numerical 
results  or  apparent  success.  In  the  story  of  primi¬ 
tive  missions  the  whole  stress  is  upon  obedience,  not 
consequence,  not  on  succeeding  but  on  serving.  The 
work  is  God’s,  the  instrumentality  only  is  man’s;  the 
whole  responsibility  is  therefore  with  the  Master 
Workman,  and  whether  success  or  failure,  defeat  or 
triumph,  be  the  apparent  outcome,  all  is  well. 

No  lesson  taught  in  these  chapters  is  more  sublime, 
or  more  needful  than  this.  In  every  age  disciples 
need  to  learn  it  anew.  So  long  as  our  eyes  are  daz¬ 
zled  by  the  glittering  trophies  of  victory,  and  our 
hearts  depressed  by  seeming  disaster,  we  shall  be  in  a 
state  of  chronic  worry.  Our  joy  and  hope,  our  cour¬ 
age  and  confidence,  will  be  like  the  waves  of  the  sea, 
mossed  up  and  down  by  every  change  of  wind,  and 
driven  to  and  fro  by  every  turn  of  tide.  The  work 
of  missions  is  God’s  work.  Man  did  not  plan  it,  can¬ 
not  carry  it  on,  cannot  make  it  a  success.  As  Dr. 
McLaren  says,  “  the  results  are  so  poor  as  to  show 
that  the  treasure  is  in  an  earthen  vessel ;  so  rich  as 
to  prove  that  in  the  earthen  vessel  is  a  heavenly 
treasure.”  We  are  therefore  simply  to  do  our  duty, 
and  with  a  holy  abandonment,  a  sublime  “  careless¬ 
ness,”  cast  ourselves  and  trust  our  work  upon  Him 
whose  we  are  and  whom  we  serve. 

Some  of  these  ten  principal  features  of  this  book 
will  receive  more  attention  further  on;  but  at  this 
point  we  have  sought  to  look  at  them  as  at  the  feat¬ 
ures  of  one  face,  striking  for  the  unity  and  harmony 
of  their  combination  and  impression.  And  they  serve 
to  characterize  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  as  the 
typical  history  of  the  witnessing  Church  during  its 
first  generation,  wherein  God  teaches  the  philosophy 
of  missions  by  a  historical  example. 

This  book  of  the  Acts  teaches  that  in  this  witness 
every  believer  is  to  take  part .  A  duty  is  involved 
from  whose  obligation  no  disciple  is  excepted;  a 
privilege  from  whose  enjoyment  and  enrichment  no 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DLSCLPLES. 


159 


believer  is  excluded.  The  opening  miracle  of  Pente¬ 
cost  writes  this  lesson  in  letters  of  fire  upon  the  door¬ 
way  of  this  historic  record,  for  it  brought  that  two¬ 
fold  gift  of  converting  and  anointing  grace,  and  the 
anointing  came  upon  all  that  little  company,  even 
upon  the  women.  The  gift  of  tongues  was  both  a 
sign  to  the  unbelievers  and  a  signal  to  believers. 
What  is  the  tongue  but  the  great  instrument  of 
testimony?  The  message  was  spoken  with  many 
tongues  to  teach  disciples  that  their  witness  was  to 
reach  every  nation,  whatever  its  language;  and  pos¬ 
sibly  that  gift  of  tongues  fitted  them  for  such  wit¬ 
ness,  without  the  tedious  mastery  of  foreign  speech. 
And  the  tongues  were  of  fire  to  remind  them  that 
faithful  testimony  was  to  be  attended  by  a  new  force, 
an  energy  not  of  man  but  of  God. 

So  plainly  is  the  tongue  of  every  disciple  thus  set 
apart  for  testimony,  that  it  is  a  fact  beyond  explana¬ 
tion  that  the  Church  should  ever  have  lost  sight  of 
God’s  purpose,  that  witnessing  shall  be  the  preroga¬ 
tive  of  all  believers ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  startling 
proofs  of  a  rapid  decline  from  a  primitive  piety,  that 
so  few  modern  disciples  feel  the  burden  of  personal 
responsibility  for  souls. 

The  study  of  words  reveals  ethics  in  language. 
Error  and  truth  find  crystallization  in  current  forms 
of  speech,  and  so  this  habitual  carelessness  that  shifts 
the  work  of  soul-saving  upon  other  shoulders  has 
become  coined  into  popular  phrases,  fixed  forms  of 
expression. 

For  instance,  let  us  look  closely  at  that  dangerous 
term,  ‘ ‘division  of  labour.”  It  is  often  said  that  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  encourages  and  enjoins  this 
principle;  and  the  institution  of  the  diaconate  is 
cited  to  prove  it,  because  the  Church  was  bidden  to 
look  out  honest  men  to  serve  tables,  leaving  the 
Apostles  free  to  give  themselves  to  prayer  and  to  the 
ministry  of  the  word. 

Let  us  beware  of  too  broad  an  induction  from  so 


160 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


narrow  a  basis  of  particulars.  There  is  a  great  gulf 
of  difference  and  distinction  between  division  of 
labour  and  distribution  of  labour.  Division  hints  at 
partition  and  separation ;  distribution  implies  only  a 
special  assignment  or  allotment  of  work.  Expedi¬ 
ency  and  convenience  may  set  apart  some  to  a  par¬ 
ticular  service,  in  order  to  free  them  from  all  entan¬ 
glements,  and  to  assure  a  more  competent  and 
thorough  attention  to  that  branch  of  work;  but  it 
is  quite  another  matter  to  build  up  a  dividing  wall, 
or  draw  even  a  dividing  line,  which  practically  parts 
disciples,  and  which  they  come  to  think  it  improper 
to  cross.  Service  is  to  be  so  distributed,  that  each  may 
have  his  own  sphere  and  work,  and  no  department 
be  overcrowded  or  under-supplied.  But  never,  during 
Apostolic  days,  was  there  found  asserted  in  the 
Church  of  Christ  any  law  of  monopoly,  clerical  caste, 
or  exclusive  right.  Whatever  such  notions  or 
customs  have  since  grown  up,  “from  the, beginning 
it  was  not  so.”  All  believers  had,  and  exercised,  an 
inalienable  and  undisputed  right  to  proclaim  Christ 
to  lost  men.  Experience  of  grace  was  the  sufficient 
warrant  for  witness  to  grace ;  and  the  only  limits  to 
such  witness  were  those  of  ability,  opportunity  and 
consecration. 

The  appointment  of  deacons  was  wise  and  needful. 
Material  and  temporal  wants  demanded  supply,  and 
such  cares  must  not  collide  and  conflict  with  purely 
spiritual  offices  and  ministries ;  and,  because  provision 
for  God’s  poor  was  a  form  of  service  to  Him,  it  must 
be  in  charge  of  men,  not  only  of  honest  report  and 
of  wisdom,  but  full  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  same  need  still  exists.  The  ministers  and  mis¬ 
sionaries  to  whom  is  committed  as  their  one  absorbing 
trust,  the  curacy  of  souls,  must  not  be  hindered  and 
hampered  by  the  stern  necessity  of  ministering  to  the 
temporal  needs  of  their  own  and  of  other  families. 
There  is  a  “  business  side  ”  of  the  Lord’s  work  which 
calls  for  men  with  a  practical  talent  for  finance  and 


TIIE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES. 


1G1 


business.  Some  who  are  not  called  to  give  them¬ 
selves  wholly  to  prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  word, 
may  unshackle  those  who  are ,  relieving  them  of  need¬ 
less  tax  on  time  and  strength,  by  taking  care  of  poor 
saints,  and  by  providing  a  sound  financial  basis  and 
bottom  for  evangelistic  and  spiritual  work. 

How  often  a  noble  structure  of  missions  has  come 
to  wreck  and  ruin  from  dry  rot  in  its  timbers, 
because  there  has  been  no  one  to  look  after  supplies ! 
The  war  is  God’s,  but  it  needs  money  and  materiel . 
Brave  Captain  Gardiner,  at  Tierra  del  Fuego,  led  a 
little  band  of  seven  against  Satan’s  seat  in  Patagonia, 
but  had  to  turn  back,  and  died  of  starvation  at  the 
very  gates  of  his  stronghold,  and  in  the  very  crisis 
of  the  assault,  because  of  lack  of  the  necessities  of 
life.  Had  some  well  organized  body  of  men  and 
women  at  home  kept  up  the  “line  of  communica¬ 
tion  ”  between  the  base  of  operations  and  the  source 
of  supplies,  Allen  Gardiner  might  not  have  fallen  at 
Spaniards’  Harbour  in  1851,  and  the  victory  might 
not  have  been  postponed  for  half  a  century ! 

Let  it  be  noted,  however,  that  the  appointment  of 
the  seven  deacons  to  serve  tables,  did  not  shut  them 
out  from  preaching  or  even  baptizing,  as  the  records 
of  both  Stephen  and  Philip  clearly  show.  Distribu¬ 
tion  of  labour  did  not  divide  disciples,  nor  debar  any 
from  taking  part  in  evangelizing.  Over  the  doors  of 
the  early  Church  the  Master  wrote  in  letters  so  large 
that  he  who  runneth  may  read  at  a  cursory  glance, 
“  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature.”  The  command  was  and  is  to  all 
disciples.  Those  who  cannot  go  in  person,  must  go 
in  the  person  of  others  who  can ;  and  with  no  less 
self-denial,  prayer,  self-offering,  must  they  who 
tarry  by  the  stuff  support  those  who  go  to  the  battle, 
than  if  they  themselves  went  to  the  field.  Only  so 
will  they  share  alike  in  the  work  and  the  reward. 
Let  this  one  law  of  service  be  framed  into  church- 
life,  and  all  will  be  alike  missionaries. 


162 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


In  that  Samarian  Pentecost,  God  laid  new  empha¬ 
sis  upon  the  truth  already  taught,  that  the  commission 
of  disciples  was  not  limited  by  priestly  lines  nor  con¬ 
fined  within  narrow  channels.  The  sharp  distinction 
between  priests  and  people,  found  in  the  days  of 
Judaism,  disappears  in  the  Christian  Church;  the 
barriers  were  down  between  the  court  of  the  gentiles 
and  the  court  of  Israel,  and  the  middle  walls  of  parti¬ 
tion  between  the  court  of  Israel  and  the  court  of  the 
priests  perished  with  the  old  Temple,  and  has  no  place 
in  the  Church  of  Christ.  Nay,  the  veil  is  rent  between 
the  Holy  Place  and  the  Holiest  of  all,  and  all  believers 
approach  alike  without  hindrance  or  hesitation  to  the 
mercy-seat.  What  means  all  this  if  not  a  plain  asser¬ 
tion  of  a  certain  equality  of  right,  dignity  and  privi¬ 
lege?  No  assault  is  designed,  in  the  calm  recording  of 
these  convictions,  upon  the  views  or  practices  of  fel¬ 
low-disciples  ;  but  candour  and  loyalty  to  truth  demand 
of  us,  that  as  honest  students  of  this  great  missionary 
charter  of  the  Church,  we  shall  accept  and  defend  its 
plain  teachings.  If  we  are  in  earnest  to  perfect  the 
missionary  methods  of  our  own  era,  we  must  with  open 
eyes  see  our  present  defects,  and  own  our  departures 
from  the  primitive  standard.  The  prime  condition 
of  all  spiritual  progress  is  a  candid  mind.  That  a 
custom  exists  is  no  warrant  for  its  right  to  exist ;  it 
is  at  best  but  a  presumption  in  its  favour.  As  Cyprian 
said,  “  Consuetudo  vetustas  erroris,” — Custom  may 
be  only  the  antiquity  of  error.  And  if  in  the  Church 
any  notions  or  practices  have  found  root  and  growth 
which  are  not  of  God’s  planting,  and  whose  fruit  is 
not  of  godly  savour,  however  marked  by  old  age,  the 
sooner  we  cut  them  down  and  extirpate  them,  root 
and  branch,  the  better.  And  surely  whatever  ham¬ 
pers  or  hinders  all  believers  from  bearing  witness  for 
the  gospel,  must  find  sanction  outside  of  the  Acts. 

God  used  persecution  to  reveal  the  true  value  and 
need  of  what  is  somewhat  invidiously  called,  “Lay- 
agency,”  in  the  world- wide  work.  The  Spirit  records 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCLPLES. 


103 


with  marked  particularity  how  in  this  wide  scatter¬ 
ing  of  disciples  the  Apostles  were  excepted ;  so  that 
the  fact  might  be  more  emphatic  that  it  was  the 
common  body  of  believers  who  being  scattered 
abroad  went  everywhere  preaching  the  word.  God 
may  yet  use  persecution  to  repeat  the  same  lesson, 
that,  as  there  is  to  be  no  distinction  among  those  who 
need  the  gospel,  so  we  are  to  deny  to  no  believer  the 
prerogative,  which  is  a  sort  of  birthright,  of  telling 
the  gospel  story  as  best  he  can.  It  needs  all  believ¬ 
ers  to  reach  all  unbelievers.  The  silver  trumpet 
which  peals  out  God’s  year  of  jubilee  is  wrought  of 
the  whole  Church,  every  believer  adding  material  to 
the  trumpet  and  volume  to  the  sound.  The  Church 
is  God’s  golden  lampstand,  and  everyone  who  is 
taught  of  God  is  part  of  that  framework,  helping  to 
lift  the  Light  of  the  world  higher  and  give  its  rays 
more  range  and  power.  Because  we  believe,  there¬ 
fore  we  speak,  is  the  reason  for  missions.  Every 
one  of  us  is  needed  in  the  work :  the  Church,  the 
world,  God,  have  need  of  us,  and  we  ourselves  need 
the  work  for  our  own  growth. 

The  Church,  as  primitive  piety  declined,  built  up 
priestly  barriers  about  the  “  clergy”  and  taught  the 
“  laity”  that  it  was  impertinent  intrusion  for  those 
who  are  not  “  ordained,”  to  preach  the  good  tidings. 
But  in  all  great  epochs  of  spiritual  power,  believers 
have  burst  these  bonds  like  cords  of  burnt  tow,  and 
claimed  the  universal;  inalienable  right  to  tell  lost 
souls  of  Jesus.  Such  false  restraints  are  cerements 
of  the  tomb ;  they  belong  not  to  the  living  but  to  the 
dead;  they  have  the  odour  of  decay,  and,  like  other 
grave-clothes,  should  be  left  behind  in  the  sepulchre. 
When  Christ’s  voice  calls  the  dead  to  life,  and  one  comes 
forth  bound  hand  and  foot  with  ceremonialism  and  tra¬ 
ditionalism,  even  his  mouth  bound  about  with  the  nap¬ 
kin  of  enforced  silence — the  Lord  of  Glory  says, 
“Loose  him  and  let  him  go!”  As  well  force  him 
back  into  the  sepulchre  and  roll  the  stone  to  the  door 


164 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


as  to  leave  a  converted  soul  bound !  Let  every  live 
man  be  a  free  man.  Stand  back!  ye  who  would 
fetter  a  disciple’s  utterance.  He  is  one  of  God’s 
witnesses.  Teach  his  tongue,  but  do  not  bind  it ! 
Train  him  for  service,  but  do  not  hold  him  back ! 
Ye,  who  are  preachers  and  pastors,  become  ye 
teachers  of  teachers,  trainers  of  workers !  turn  your 
churches  into  recruiting  offices,  barracks,  armouries, 
where  disciples  enlist  for  the  war,  and  are  put 
through  the  drill  and  discipline  of  soldiers;  where 
they  put  on  the  whole  armour  of  God,  and  then  go 
forth,  led  by  you,  to  fight  the  good  fight  of  faith ! 

Do  we,  with  needless  repetition,  seek  to  emphasize 
this  lesson  of  the  common  duty  and  privilege  of 
believers  to  preach  the  gospel  ?  Mark  how  God 
repeats  it  in  this  book.  That  Samarian  Pentecost 
was  a  new  voice  of  God  teaching  this  truth.  All  that 
great  work  of  grace  revolved  about  Philip  the  deacon, 
a  man  set  apart  indeed,  but  not  for  preaching  or  bap¬ 
tizing;  and  God  set  his  own  sign  and  seal  in  a  won¬ 
derful  way  upon  the  ministry  of  this  lay  evangelist. 
What  a  divine  rebuke  to  all  unscriptural  notions, 
whether  sacerdotal  or  sacramental !  The  age  of  mis¬ 
sions  holds  a  blessing  so  large,  that  it  cannot  be  con¬ 
fined  within  priestly  lines  and  limits.  The  vast  host 
to  be  reached  defies  us  to  overtake  their  destitution 
while  we  rely  upon  a  few  thousand  educated, 
ordained,  highly  trained  workmen.  Millions  sink, 
unsaved  and  unwarned,  while  we  are  waiting  for 
experts  to  come  to  their  rescue  with  all  the  most 
improved  life-saving  apparatus  of  the  schools.  If 
for  these  souls  in  wreck  we  cannot  command  the 
rocket  and  gun,  the  swinging-basket  and  life-boat, 
let  us  have  the  strong  arm  of  the  swimmer,  the 
plank — anything  to  save  a  sinking  man ! 

Let  us  thank  God  for  the  age  of  a  Reformed 
Church!  For  fifteen  centuries  the  vicious  ecclesi- 
asticism  that  found  deep  root  in  Constantine’s  rule, 
overshadowed  the  Church,  and  some  remnants  of  it 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES. 


165 


still  survive.  Too  often,  with  the  average  Christian, 
the  practical  conception  of  duty  is  fulfilled  if  he 
attends  Church-worship,  supports  the  preacher,  gives 
to  benevolent  work,  and  lives  an  upright  life,  leaving 
to  the  minister  to  do  the  preaching  and  to  take  care 
of  souls. 

Such  notions  find  no  native  soil  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles.  There,  from  first  to  last,  we  find  one 
truth  taught  and  one  duty  done:  all  who  believed 
were  expected  to  take  part  in  spreading  the  faith; 
many,  not  fitted  to  lead  and  teach,  could,  at  least,  tell 
the  good  tidings.  In  every  age,  and  above  all  in  an 
age  of  reviving  missionary  activity,  this  fact  needs 
anew  to  be  wrought  into  the  convictions  of  God’s 
people,  that  in  this  sort  of  “preaching”  every 
believer  is  to  have  part.  No  golden  chalice,  costly 
and  rare,  polished  and  jewelled,  is  needed  to  bear 
water  to  those  who  are  dying  of  thirst;  a  tin  cup  or 
a  broken  potsherd  will  do,  anything  that  will  hold 
water. 

In  our  day,  new  voices  of  God,  loud  and  clear,  are 
calling  disciples  to  share  in  this  active,  aggressive 
crusade  for  Christ.  God’s  Providence  is  the  new 
“Peter,  the  Hermit,”  that  goes  through  Christen¬ 
dom,  shouting,  “Deus  vult!” — God  wills  it!  The 
one  great  feature  of  our  century  has  been  the  growth 
of  consecrated  individualism  ;  and  as  a  natural,  neces¬ 
sary  sequence,  has  come  the  breaking  down  of  all 
false  barriers  that,  in  direct  work  for  souls,  fence 
in  ministers  of  Christ  and  fence  out  members  of 
churches.  While  the  ministers  are  no  less  needed 
and  no  less  busy,  in  all  churches  where  true  life 
throbs  common  believers  have  come  to  feel  that 
every  man  is  his  brother’s  keeper;  and  that  to  shirk 
personal  work  for  souls  is  not  only  culpable  neglect 
of  the  lost,  but  serious  risk  of  spiritual  loss  to  the 
neglecting  party ! 

It  is  just  a  century  ago  since,  in  1793,  France 
called  all  loyal  citizens  to  rise  and  resist  the  flood  of 


166 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


invading  foes  that  threatened  the  destruction  of  the 
nation.  All  were  bidden  to  take  part  in  the  work. 
The  older  men  could  forge  arms  and  the  younger 
bear  them;  the  women  could  make  tents  and  uni¬ 
forms,  and  even  the  children  could  scrape  lint  and 
prepare  bandages.  The  God  of  Battles  calls  all 
alike,  old  and  young,  men,  women,  children,  to  a 
share  in  the  work  and  war  of  the  ages.  He  tells  us 
in  unmistakable  terms,  that  those  who  think  of 
nothing  beyond  their  own  salvation,  are  scarcely 
saved,  if  at  all;  and  in  answer  to  His  summons,  a  new 
generation  of  disciples  is  coming  forward  trained  to 
an  unselfish  consecration  to  soul-saving. 

1.  If  we  seek  some  examples  of  this  modern  devel¬ 
opment  of  personal  activity  in  Christian  service,  let 
us  hear  God’s  voice  in  the  modern  Sunday-school . 
Robert  Raikes  had  originally  no  aim  beyond  the  occu¬ 
pation  of  the  idle,  ignorant  children,  who  made  the 
Lord’s  day  noisy  with  their  mischief.  But  God  was 
behind  the  movement  that  started  in  Gloucester,  and 
by  it  He  was  leading  out  believers  into  new  fields  of 
work.  And  now  in  the  Sunday-school,  the  humblest 
disciple  may  find  -a  little  congregation  for  teaching 
saving  truth,  a  little  parish  for  exercise  of  pas¬ 
toral  oversight,  a  little  field  to  sow  and  reap  in  the 
Master’s  name.  So  universal  has  the  Sunday-school 
become  that  no  church  is  complete  without  this 
nursery  of  young  plants  for  the  Lord’s  garden. 

2.  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association ,  now 
completing  its  first  half  century,  has  a  like  provi¬ 
dential  mission.  Its  rapid  growth  and  world-wide 
extension  reveal  its  place  in  the  plan  of  God. 
Already  it  has  wrought  three  marked  results:  it 
has  brought  believers  together,  encouraged  Bible 
study,  and  trained  lay  workers. 

It  belongs  to  the  very  basis  of  this  great  organ¬ 
ization,  that  it  lifts  into  prominence  only  the  grand 
truths  which  evangelical  disciples  hold  in  common ; 
and  so,  leaving  out  of  sight  those  minor  matters  of 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES. 


167 


creed  or  polity  which  have  often  proved  divisive  and 
destructive  of  unity,  it  unifies  all  believers  by  mag¬ 
nifying  their  agreements  and  minimizing  their  dif¬ 
ferences. 

Then  this  association  directly  stimulates  systematic 
search  into  Holy  Scripture,  putting  the  word  of  God 
into  the  hands  of  young  men  as  their  text-book  in 
holy  living  and  serving,  and  teaching  them  that  its 
contents  are  to  be  mastered  and  utilized  for  growth 
in  grace  and  usefulness.  The  last  half  century  is 
the  era  of  the  Bagster  and  the  Oxford  Bible  as  the 
habitual  companion  of  Christian  young  men. 

These  two  results  contribute  to  a  third,  yet  more 
important — the  raising  up  of  a  generation  of  young 
men  competent  to  take  intelligent  part  in  soul-win¬ 
ning.  Even  the  Apostolic  age  may  safely  be  chal¬ 
lenged  to  show  any  parallel  development  in  this 
direction.  Within  fifty  years  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  young  men  have  been  brought  to  think,  not  of 
denominational  distinctions,  but  of  fundamental, 
saving  gospel  truths ;  led  to  give  themselves  to 
personal  study  of  the  word  of  God,  until  they  have 
attained  marvellous  mastery  of  its  contents  and 
facility  in  its  use,  and  then  have  been  drawn  to  feel 
the  duty  and  delight  of  direct  work  to  save  others, 
and  to  engage  directly  in  active  personal  service  for 
Christ. 

It  is  a  sublime  sight  to  behold  this  vast  army  of 
young  men,  prayerfully  searching  the  Scriptures, 
and  then  going  forth  to  use  their  knowledge  of  the 
inspired  word  to  guide  others  to  Christ,  and  train 
them  for  similar  service.  To  this  lay-activity  the 
whole  providential  history  of  this  world-embracing 
organization  has  so  rapidly  and  directly  led,  that 
even  those  who  were  once  incredulous  and  suspicious 
are  constrained  to  see  in  it  all,  the  will  and  working 
of  God.  Just  now  there  is,  perhaps,  a  risk  that  in 
the  new  stress  laid  upon  athletic  skill,  intellectual 
culture,  social  standing,  moral  excellence,  the  ulti- 


168 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


mate  end  which  God  obviously  had  in  view  may  be 
sacrificed  or  obscured.  If  the  Young  Men’s  Christian 
Association  should  degenerate  into  a  mere  religious 
club;  if  spiritual  development  is  made  subordinate 
to  any  other  end ;  if  Bible  study,  training  for  service 
and  actual  soul-saving  are  ever  pushed  to  the  rear  to 
make  way  for  other  practical  objects  however  laud¬ 
able,  the  unique  place  which  this  association  has 
filled  in  history  will  be  sacrificed,  and  it  will  be  no 
longer  the  important  factor  and  mighty  force  it  has 
been  in  the  purpose  of  God.  As  one  who  has  been 
identified  with  this  organization  for  forty  years,  and 
who  has  lovingly  and  thankfully  watched  its  growth, 
the  writer  of  these  pages  thus  leaves  on  record  his 
warning  word  against  those  devices  of  the  devil 
which  endanger  the  future  of  this  wonderful  out¬ 
growth  of  this  missionary  century. 

3.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Young  Women's 
Christian  Associations  are  the  natural  result  of  the 
other,  seeking  to  do  for  the  sisterhood  what  the 
companion  associations  have  done  for  the  brother¬ 
hood;  and  there  is  coming  to  be,  not  the  unsexing , 
but  the  unbinding  of  woman.  In  the  kingdom  of 
God  there  is  to  be  “  neither  male  nor  female.”  Fet¬ 
ters  of  unscriptural  restriction  are  fast  falling  off 
from  the  gentler  as  from  the  sterner  sex;  and  where 
man  finds  a  closed  door,  woman’s  suasive  tenderness 
and  delicacy  touches  the  secret  springs  of  power. 

4.  Another  example  of  God’s  call  to  general  activ¬ 
ity  in  behalf  of  souls  is  found  in  the  Young  People's 
Society  of  Christian  Endeavor . 

In  the  year  1881,  somewhat  more  than  thirteen 
years  ago,  a  young  New  England  pastor  felt  that 
something  must  be  done  among  the  younger  mem¬ 
bers  of  his  congregation  to  educate  them  into  habits 
of  witnessing  and  working  for  Christ.  He  must 
unloose  tongues  spiritually  dumb,  and  arrest  the 
drift  toward  the  Dead  Sea  of  idleness  and  stagnation. 
So  he  formed  in  his  own  church  the  first  society  of 


THE  CALL  TO  ALL  DISCIPLES. 


1(59 


Christian  Endeavor.  Its  simple  secret  was  a  pledge 
regujarly  to  attend  its  meetings  and  habitually  to  take 
part  in  some  way  in  their  exercises.  Around  this 
mutual  covenant,  as  a  nucleus,  the  society  rapidly 
grew;  and  so  well  did  the  new  plan  work  that 
neighbouring  pastors  and  churches  followed  the  lead, 
and  formed  societies  of  a  like  sort.  And  so  it 
has  come  to  pass  that  live  coals  from  the  altar 
at  Portland,  Maine,  have  been  borne  from  church 
to  church,  until,  as  we  write,  the  number  of  these 
organizations  is  already  legion,  and  the  total  mem¬ 
bership  reaches  1,725,000.  Rev.  F.  E.  Clark,  D.D., 
who  all-unconsciously  kindled  this  first  fire,  has 
been  on  a  world-round  tour  to  visit,  as  bishop,  the 
hundreds  of  societies  which  are  belting  the  globe ! 

5.  What  shall  be  said  of  the  “ Salvation  Army ,” 
which,  notwithstanding  its  crude  notions  and  strange 
methods,  has  left  in  the  rear  all  other  organiza¬ 
tions  for  carrying  the  gospel  to  the  most  destitute? 
After  an  existence  of  twenty-eight  years,  it  reports 
4,397  mission  stations;  seventy-four  homes  of  rest 
for  officers  whose  health  is  broken  down;  sixty-six 
schools  for  the  training  of  officers;  sixty-four  slum 
posts;  forty-nine  rescue  homes  for  fallen  women; 
twelve  prison-gate  homes,  fifty-two  food  and  shelter 
depots;  thirty-four  factories  and  employment  offices; 
and  five  farm  colonies. 

Who  can  look  at  such  developments  of  our  own  day 
and  not  see  God’s  way  of  working?  How  plainly  do 
all  these,  and  other  similar  voices  of  God,  unite  in 
one  loud  testimony!  He  is  evoking  all  the  latent 
energies  of  his  Church  for  the  work  of  witnessing  to 
all  men  the  gospel  of  His  grace,  with  a  rapidity  and 
energy  that  remind  us  of  the  Apostolic  age;  the 
forces  He  had  set  in  motion  have  swept  away  arti¬ 
ficial  barriers  between  young  and  old,  male  and 
female,  and  thrust  all  alike  into  the  field  of  service. 
He  who  watches  the  signs  of  the  times  must  see  God 
in  history  and  will  have  no  doubt  which  way  His 


170 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


march  is  moving.  He  is  summoning  and  leading 
all  willing  followers  to  a  combined  assault  on  the 
strongholds  of  Satan  and  the  powers  of  hell. 


III. 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  FIELD. 

Our  Lord’s  farewell  words  taught  that  great  second 
lesson,  that  the  field  of  witness  is  as  wide  as  the 
world . 

“Unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth”  must  dis¬ 
ciples  go.  Dispersion  is  the  next  lesson  to  be  learned, 
and  learned  anew  in  every  age.  Pentecost  prepared 
for  the  scattering  of  those  whom  the  Spirit  endued, 
as  they  went  back  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  inhab¬ 
ited  world  with  the  life-giving  word. 

When  the  disciples,  thus  endued  with  power,  re¬ 
turned  to  their  separate  abodes,  this  dispersion  was 
itself  a  missionary  campaign.  The  annual  Passover 
at  the  national  capital  was  a  mighty  magnet  whose 
attractive  force  was  felt  wherever  the  scattered  rem¬ 
nants  of  the  Hebrew  race  were  found.  Great  was  the 
concourse,  and  from  many  lands.  The  procession  of 
pilgrims  was  like  the  flood,  swept  through  dry  river¬ 
beds  by  the  latter  rain,  and  for  miles  around  the 
sacred  city  houses  and  hamlets  were  crowded,  and  in 
every  valley  and  grove  tents  thronged  like  a  camp. 
When  those  who  thus  came  up  to  keep  the  feasts  of 
Passover  and  Pentecost  .went  back  with  the  endue- 
ment  of  power,  God  was  in  unforeseen  ways  multi¬ 
plying  the  channels  for  far-reaching  and  effective 
witness.  What  human  wisdom  could  have  planned  a 
scheme  whereby  the  experience  of  one  day  in  Jeru¬ 
salem  should  thus  touch  so  quickly  the  very  ends  of 
the  earth ! 

The  persecution  that  arose  about  Stephen  was 
another  event,  vocal  with  a  new  command  for  dis¬ 
persion.  Disciples  were  prone  to  congregate  and 
concentrate  at  Jerusalem;  it  compelled  them  to  sepa¬ 
rate  and  scatter.  It  was  natural  for  the  Jewish 

171 


172 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES . 


Christian  Church  to  gravitate  toward  the  old  centre 
of  the  hierarchy  and  of  worship,  where  the  tribes  had 
been  wont  to  gather.  But  the  centripetal  attraction 
has  always  been  the  fatal  foe  of  missions.  Love  is 
a  centrifugal  force,  and  He  who  taught  us  the  supreme 
lesson  of  love,  said,  1 1  Go  ye  into  all  the  world ;  as 
My  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you.”  When 
this  message  was  in  danger  of  being  unheeded,  and 
the  old  tendency  to  selfish  centralization  and  religious 
seclusion  was  asserting  itself,  God,  by  His  provi¬ 
dence,  repeated  with  stern  emphasis  the  lesson  that 
the  Church  was  to  disperse  far  and  wide.  It  was 
done  as  by  a  peal  of  thunder  and  the  shock  of  earth¬ 
quake.  Persecution  with  explosive  violence  drove 
disciples  from  the  Holy  City  to  the  very  bounds  of 
Palestine.  The  Church  was  shattered  that  it  might 
be  scattered,  and  fragments  were  found  at  Antioch 
and  throughout  Syria,  at  Cyprus,  and  throughout 
Phoenicia.  And  so  persecution  became  the  parent  of 
early  Christian  missions.  Strange  parentage!  “  Out 
of  the  eater  came  forth  meat !  ”  The  devouring  lion 
furnishes  supplies  to  the  hungry. 

Thus,  for  all  time,  God’s  voice  was  heard,  and  the 
lesson  is  left  on  record  that,  in  all  this  age  of  evan¬ 
gelism,  the  policy  of  His  people  is  to  be  diffusion  and 
dispersion.  No  favoured,  favourite  capital  is  to 
become  our  chapel-of-ease,  our  earthly  rest,  even 
though  it  could  be  an  earthly  Heaven,  while  hell  is 
found  raging  in  the  regions  beyond.  Even  the  joys 
of  Christian  fellowship  may  become  too  absorbing. 
Selfishness  in  its  most  refined  forms  must  yield  to 
the  unselfishness  which  resigns  such  companionship 
for  ourselves  that  it  may  become  possible  to  introduce 
the  most  depraved,  degraded  and  destitute  to  the  fel¬ 
lowship  of  saints  and  of  God.  Any  influence,  any 
combination  of  causes,  implies  a  curse  to  the  believer 
whenever  it  makes  the  Church  a  cradle  to  rock  God’s 
children  to  sleep  with  the  soft  lullaby  of  “  Home, 
Sweet  Home!” 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  FIELD. 


173 


Other  visions  and  voices  fastened  the  impression  of 
this  second  lesson  that  the  witness  of  disciples  is  to 
find  in  the  wide  world,  its  field. 

i.  Peter’s  trance  on  the  housetop  at  Joppa  was  both 
a  vision  and  a  voice,  teaching  most  impressively  this 
truth.  A  parable  was  enacted,  the  Divine  hand 
being  back  of  the  shifting  scenery.  The  sheet,  let 
down  from  heaven  by  its  four  corners,  in  which  were 
found  all  manner  of  creatures,  wild  and  tame,  clean 
and  unclean,  was  a  speaking  symbol  of  the  Church, 
not  of  man’s  device  but  of  God’s  design,  let  down 
from  heaven  and  to  be  caught  up  again  into  heaven ; 
its  four  corners  hinting  its  universal  character,  reach¬ 
ing  ultimately  to  the  four  corners  of  the  earth ;  within 
whose  ample  folds  are  to  be  brought  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  men,  from  all  quarters  and  climes, 
nations  and  grades  of  society,  and  representing  all 
varieties  of  intellectual  and  moral  degradation  and 
development. 

No  pictorial  lesson  ever  before  or  since  has  so 
taught  the  value  and  dignity  of  man  as  man !  The 
vision  was  itself  sufficiently  vocal,  yet  it  must  have  a 
voice  to  interpret  it,  and  that  voice  three  times  spoke 
the  same  words : 

“what  god  hath  cleansed, 

THAT  CALL  NOT  THOU  COMMON !” 

Blow  after  blow  of  God’s  heavy  hammer,  to  break 
into  pieces  and  beat  into  powder,  the  adamantine 
walls  of  Jewish  exclusiveness,  and  the  brazen  gates 
of  religious  bigotry ! 

Peter  was  a  representative  Jew,  and,  unlike  Paul, 
seems  never  as  yet  to  have  strayed  beyond  the  bounds 
of  the  Holy  Land.  He  was  an  ecclesiastical  aristocrat. 
To  all  such  as  he,  the  law  of  separation  obscures  the 
law  of  love.  This  voice  and  vision  were  meant  for 
more  than  himself.  They  were  the  lasting  rebuke  of 
that  spirit  of  Caste  which  upholds  invidious  distinc- 


174 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


tions,  and  upbuilds  impassable  barriers  between 
man  and  man. 

Of  caste,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  has  been 
the  one  giant  foe  of  world- wide  missions.  Very 
early  in  Church  history  God’s  own  hand  wrote  upon 
the  wall,  in  letters  of  fire,  such  as  struck  awe  to  the 
hearts  of  the  Babylonian  revellers — 

‘ 6  What  God  hath  cleansed,  that  call  not  thou  com¬ 
mon.” 

The  whole  race  will  never  be  reached  with  the 
gospel,  until  we  learn  what  is  meant  by  “all  the 
world,”  and  ‘ ‘every  creature.”  In  God’s  eyes,  and 
therefore  in  our  eyes,  no  line  is  to  be  drawn  which 
limits  love  or  labour  for  human  souls;  no  discrimina¬ 
tion  allowed,  save  in  favour  of  the  least  and  lowest, 
most  destitute  and  degraded.  We  are  to  call  or  con¬ 
sider  no  man  common  or  unclean;  in  love’s  impartial 
ministry,  no  one  is  to  be  evaded  or  avoided ;  and  so 
far  are  we  to  be  from  such  narrowness  and  selfish¬ 
ness  that  those  are  to  have  the  first  claim  upon  our 
sympathy  and  succour,  who  are  most  in  need  and 
most  without  help. 

Peter’s  vision  marked  a  new  stage,  a  new  epoch  in 
Church  history.  Years  have  sped  by  since  the  Lord 
went  up  and  the  Spirit  came  down.  Yet,  despite  the 
great  commission  and  the  great  effusion;  notwith¬ 
standing  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  witnesses,  by  their 
return  to  distant  homes,  and  the  wide  dispersion  of 
persecuted  disciples,  two  barriers  yet  remain  to 
hinder  the  world-wide  work :  the  tendency  to  cen¬ 
tralization  and  the  principle  of  exclusion.  The  Jew 
had  not  yet  learned  that  other  places  were  lawful  for 
worship  and  solemn  assembly  beside  the  Temple  of 
Jerusalem,  and  that  wherever  worshippers  meet  in 
the  Spirit,  God  is  to  be  found. 

The  old  exclusive  policy  and  spirit  survived.  As 
Thales,  wisest  and  best  of  Greeks,  looked  on  all 
outside  of  Greece  as  “  barbarians,”  so,  to  the  Jew  all 
beyond  the  circle  of  the  covenant  were  aliens  to  be 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  FIELD . 


175 


shunned,  if  not  foes  to  be  hated.  That  phrase, 
“The  Jews  have  no  dealings  with  the  Samari¬ 
tans,”  is  the  key  to  a  chamber  of  curious  and 
shameful  customs  and  prejudices.  The  road  between 
Jerusalem  and  Galilee  lay  through  Samaria,  and  the 
Jew  must  needs  go  that  way  or  cross  the  Jordan;  but 
he  held  his  very  garments  free  from  the  defiling 
touch  of  the  inhabitants  whom  he  despised  as  a 
hybrid,  bastard  progeny  of  heathenism  and  Judaism. 
By  proximity  a  neighbour,  the  Samaritan  was  by 
hostility  a  foe,  and  the  Jew  would  hesitate  to  point 
the  lost  traveller  to  the  road  or  the  thirsty  pilgrim  to 
a  spring,  if  he  belonged  to  that  unclean  race ! 

What  wonder  if  such  barriers  had  to  be  broken 
down  before  the  woik  of  missions  could  be  done  or 
the  spirit  of  missions  could  have  sway !  The  walls 
that  shut  Jewish  disciples  in,  shut  strangers  and  for¬ 
eigners  out.  Obstinate  holding  on  to  Jerusalem 
meant  equally  stubborn  casting  off  of  all  outsiders. 
The  lines  of  caste  were  in  effect  fatal  hindrances  to 
all  world  evangelization,  barriers  scarcely  less  rigid 
and  frigid  than  those  which  part  the  millions  of 
India. 

We  have  seen  how  the  Providence  and  Spirit  of 
God  battered  down  these  walls  as  with  shot  and 
shell  by  the  explosive  force  of  persecution,  and  how 
Philip’s  work  in  Samaria  and  his  word  to  the  Ethio¬ 
pian  eunuch  crossed  caste  lines ;  and  now,  not  as  by 
earthquake,  storm  or  flame,  but  in  the  still  small 
voice  of  solemn  rebuke  and  repeated  remonstrance, 
God  speaks  to  Peter,  that  he  may  echo  it  to  the 
whole  Church,  that  God’s  cleansing  leaves  no  man 
common  or  unclean.  Then  followed  at  Caesar’s 
palace  and  before  a  Roman  audience,  a  display  of 
grace  that  illustrated  and  enforced  the  lesson  on  the 
housetop,  and  forbade  the  Jew  ever  to  dispute  the 
right,  even  of  the  hated  conqueror  of  his  nation,  to  a 
full  part  in  the  great  salvation. 

That  lesson  on  the  housetop  was  thrice  taught 


176 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


perhaps  because  it  concerned  the  work  of  the  Triune 
God.  The  Father’s  electing  grace,  the  Son’s  atoning 
blood,  the  Spirit’s  renewing  power, — all  cleanse 
believers  equally  and  guarantee  their  equality  of 
right.  But  one  thing  is  sure :  so  long  as  any  man  is 
to  us  common  or  unclean,  we  have  not  caught  the 
divine  passion  of  universal  missions.  Conversion 
implies  contact,  and  contact,  approach.  To  Peter, 
because  he  was  appointed  to  open  the  kingdom  to  all 
believers,  as  the  representative  Apostle,  the  Divine 
Preacher  gave  this  picture-lesson  with  its  interpret¬ 
ing  voice.  The  vision  and  the  voice  are  equally  for 
us.  They  teach  that  before  Him  who  is  no  respecter 
of  persons,  all  men  are  on  the  same  moral  level; 
that  as  to  condemnation  there  is  “  no  difference,” 
‘ 6  for  all  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of 
God;”  that  as  to  gracious  invitation  there  is  “  no  dif¬ 
ference,”  for  the  same  Lord  over  all  is  rich  unto  all 
that  call  upon  Him ;  and  as  to  actual  salvation  and 
sanctification  there  is  “  no  difference,”  for  He  puri¬ 
fies  the  hearts  of  all  alike  by  faith.  The  first  formal 
proclamation  of  this  fact  of  the  universality  of  gospel 
grace  was  to  be  made  in  the  palace  of  Roman  aliens, 
before  a  gentile  centurion  and  his  company,  and 
Peter  was  to  announce  it.  Hence  the  thrice-repeated 
lesson  which  compelled  the  impetuous  and  wilful 
Jew  to  learn  human  equality  before  God. 

When  these  new  chapters  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos¬ 
tles  were  to  be  written,, in  our  age  of  missions,  the 
old  lesson  was  retaught,  and  if  possible,  with  heavier 
accentuation  of  its  central  truth.  In  heathen  lands 
caste  lines  and  limits  are  frigidly  rigid  like  ice  bar¬ 
riers.  The  Brahmanic  system  has  been  aptly  char¬ 
acterized  as  “a  cellular  structure  of  society  in  which 
the  cells  never  interpenetrate.”  The  different 
classes,  which  are  by  a  hoary  superstition  con¬ 
nected  with  different  parts  of  the  body  of  Brahm, 
are  like  strata  of  rock,  petrified  into  immobility  and 
immutability.  Nothing  short  of  an  earthquake  con- 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  FIELD. 


177 


vulsion,  upheaving  the  whole  social  order,  could 
break  up  this  strong  fatality  of  social  status.  No 
personal  worth  or  intellectual  attainment  or  heroic 
achievement,  no  service  to  the  nation  or  to  its  relig¬ 
ion,  can  lift  a  Hindu  above  the  level  of  caste  in  which 
he  was  born,  though  a  trifling  violation  of  petty  rules 
may  sink  him  to  a  lower  level  as  an  out-caste.  Cus¬ 
toms  so  absurdly  unreasonable  and  inflexible  become 
barriers  to  mutual  fellowship,  even  between  converts 
at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and  in  work  for  souls. 

Thus  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  most  for¬ 
midable  obstacle  to  oriental  missions  is  caste.  The 
Tabu  system  found  prevailing  in  the  islands  of  the 
sea  was  essentially  identical  with  it,  forbidding  wives 
to  share  a  meal  with  their  husbands,  and  making  it  a 
capital  crime  for  an  inferior  to  cast  his  shadow  upon 
his  chief  by  inadvertently  passing  between  him  and 
the  sun ! 

Caste  lines  are  not  confined  to  heathen,  pagan  and 
moslem  territory.  In  countries,  called  Christian,  we 
.  find  arbitrary  distinctions  scarcely  less  formidable 
as  hindrances  to  practical  fellowship  and  common 
service.  In  some  Protestant  communities  there  ex¬ 
ists  an  aristocratic  social  structure,  where  partition 
walls  still  effectually  divide  patrician  and  plebeian 
classes,  nobility  and  commonalty.  True,  it  is  pos¬ 
sible  for  a  man  to  rise  higher:  the  common  labourer 
sometimes  becomes  the  master-workman,  the  mer¬ 
chant  prince,  the  member  of  Parliament  or  of  the  rul¬ 
ing  class.  But  ascent  is  not  easy,  and  we  all  need 
Peter’s  lesson  reiterated:  What  God  hath  cleansed, 
that  call  not  thou  common.  Republics  as  well  as 
monarchies,  democracy  as  well  as  aristocracy,  prove 
human  nature  still  to  be  depraved,  for  in  the  best 
social  state  we  find  caste  walls  existing.  What  is 
more  despotic  than  the  aristocracy  of  wealth,  that 
hangs  one’s  social  rank  on  the  chance  of  a  business 
venture;  or  the  aristocracy  of  fashion,  that  makes 
Brummels  princes,  and  character  something  worn  on 


178 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


the  back,  to  be  bought  at  a  tailor’s  shop ;  or  even  the 
aristocracy  of  culture,  which  weighs  manhood  in  the 
scales  of  refinement  and  confounds  morals  with 
manners  ? 

God  saw  how  much  there  was  needed  a  new  lesson 
even  in  this  missionary  century,  a  lesson  to  be 
taught  repeatedly  and  emphatically,  that  the  only- 
real,  ultimate  standard  of  value  is  that  which  is 
within  reach  of  all,  namely,  moral  worth ;  and  that 
as  to  accidents  of  birth  or  blood,  of  poverty,  culture 
and  social  position,  the  Scotch  poet  was  a  moral 
philosopher  when  he  sang, 

“  A  man’s  a  man  for  a’  that !  ” 

That  social  system  which  most  allows  men  to  breathe 
and  move  freely,  affording  inspiration  to  hope  and 
scope  for  growth,  is  the  most  perfect.  The  lamented 
President  Garfield,  himself  an  example  of  one  who 
had  risen  far  above  his  native  level,  used  to  say 
that  the  ideal  state  is  one  where  we  find,  not  6 i  as  in 
the  land,  fixed  and  immovable  layers  of  soil  or  rock, 
but  as  in  the  sea,  conditions  so  elastic  and  flexible, 
that  the  drop  which  to-day  touches  the  sand  at  the 
bottom  may  to-morrow  gleam  upon  the  wave’s  crest.” 
If  in  any  man  there  be  the  force  that  bears  him 
onward  and  upward,  love  forbids  us  to  hold  him 
hopelessly  down.  The  Church  should  present  an 
ideal  state,  where  all  have  equal  rights,  and  equal 
claims  upon  all  that  can  uplift,  emancipate,  educate 
body,  mind,  soul ;  where  aspiration  has  full  play,  and 
advancement  finds  favouring  conditions. 

When  King  James  sent  the  poor  poet,  Ben  Jon- 
son,  a  present  of  a  crown  piece,  Jonson  sent  back 
word  by  the  bearer,  4  i  The  king  sends  me  five 
shillings  because  I  live  in  an  alley.  Go  tell  him 
that  his  soul  lives  in  an  alley!”  Modern  missions 
have  written  in  letters  of  light  this  noble  lesson, 
that  many  a  man  who  is  clothed  in  purple  and  fine 
linen,  lives  in  an  alley ;  and  many  a  beggar  who  lies 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  FIELD. 


179 


at  the  gate,  asking  alms  of  charity,  is  on  his  way  to 
the  King’s  palace.  See  how  the  Divine  Teacher  has 
taught  the  inherent  dignity  and  royalty  of  character, 
in  choosing  for  leaders  of  the  Church  universal, 
Carey  from  the  cobbler’s  bench,  Williams  from  the 
ironmonger’s  forge,  Marsden  from  the  blacksmith’s 
anvil,  Livingstone  from  the  cotton  mill,  Hunt  from 
the  farmer’s  plough,  Johnson  from  the  sugar  refinery ! 

Let  us  beware  how  we  foster  the  spirit  of  caste. 
Charles  Darwin  pronounced  the  Patagonians  the 
missing  link  between  man  and  the  monkey,  and 
thought  that  not  even  the  lever  of  Christian  missions 
could  uplift  them ;  the  French  papist  v^ho  ruled  on 
the  Isle  of  Bourbon  told  the  pioneer  missionaries  to 
Madagascar  that  to  convert  the  Malagasy  was  as 
hopeless  as  to  convert  oxen,  sheep,  or  asses.  But 
even  so  enlightened  a  man  as  a  Canon  of  Westmin¬ 
ster  ranked  the  aboriginies  of  Australia  so  low  that 
it  was  not  worth  while  to  expend  labour  upon  them. 
In  appeals  for  Africa,  how  often  have  we  been  met 
by  the  objection  that  it  is  a  waste  of  men  and  money 
to  preach  to  the  fetish  worshippers,  because  they 
have  no  capacity  to  understand  or  receive  spiritual 
truth,  and  the  image  of  God,  if  it  ever  existed  in 
them,  is  not  only  defaced  but  effaced ! 

The  whole  history  of  modern  missions  is  a  vision 
and  a  voice  in  favour  of  man  as  man.  God  has  shown 
by  the  proof  of  facts,  by  that  most  conclusive  argu¬ 
ment — experiment — that  no  human  being  is  too  high 
to  need  the  gospel,  or  too  low  to  be  reached  by  it. 
The  most  signal  triumphs  and  glorious  trophies  of 
the  good  tidings  have  been  among  the  very  classes 
whom  our  scepticism  would  account  beneath  the 
reach  even  of  saving  grace.  The  most  fertile  fields 
for  the  seed  of  the  kingdom  have  been  those  pre¬ 
viously  the  most  barren  of  good,  or  desperately  fruit¬ 
ful  in  evil.  Man  would  have  turned  to  the  higher 
classes,  appealing  to  intelligence  and  capacity.  But 
while  they  have  turned  from  Christ  with  contempt, 


180 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


behold  the  debased  demon  worshipper  in  whom  all 
ideas  of  true  worship  seem  obliterated;  or  the  de¬ 
graded  cannibal,  without  natural  affection,  implaca¬ 
ble,  unmerciful ;  or  the  brutal  savage,  whose  religion 
was  a  mixture  of  lust  and  lies,  robbery  and  cruelty, 
bloody  wars  and  lawless  violence,  who  cared  neither 
for  the  virtue  of  womanhood,  nor  the  innocence  of 
childhood,  nor  the  helplessness  of  old  age — behold 
such  brought  to  bow  at  Jesus’  feet,  and  then  going 
forth  to  tell  of  Him  to  others!  We  can  scarce  be¬ 
lieve  our  own  eyes  as  we  see  the  modern  miracles  of 
missions,  of  which  no  pen  has  ever  told  the  half. 
Those  who  glutted  their  avarice  by  pillage,  their  re¬ 
venge  by  slaughter,  their  appetite  by  feasts  on 
human  flesh, — these  have  been  found  believing  in 
Jesus  and  heralding  His  power  to  save!  Let  God 
speak,  ye  who  think  even  the  worst  of  the  race  be¬ 
neath  your  respect  and  unworthy  of  Christian  effort ! 
“  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men;  ” 
and  by  one  blood  hath  He  redeemed  all  peoples. 
Therefore,  He  says,  “Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
make  disciples  of  all  nations.” 

Yes,  the  century  is  vocal  with  divine  appeals  for 
man  as  man.  Enthusiasm  for  humanity,  that  divine 
passion  for  souls,  must  sweep  away  the  hollow, 
shallow  distinctions  which  part  men  asunder.  In 
*  every  human  soul  we  must  see  the  potential  saint, 
outranking  angels  in  the  closeness  of  bond  with 
Christ.  Without  such  enthusiasm  for  humanity, 
missions  must  languish. 

Peter’s  vision  on  the  housetop  was  the  forecast;  the 
modern  Church  is  the  prophecy  fulfilling.  In  the 
sheet  let  down  from  heaven  every  class  of  mankind 
is  already  embraced.  Wild  beasts  have  been  tamed 
and  turned  into  obedient  bullocks,  ready  for  plough 
or  altar;  unclean  birds  of  prey  are  changed  to  gentle 
doves,  celestial  songsters,  birds  of  paradise;  crawl¬ 
ing  reptiles  that  crept  along  the  earth  are  trans¬ 
formed  into  erect  men  who  walk  with  God.  What 


THE  VISION  OF  TIIE  FIELD. 


181 


the  Apostle  saw  in  anticipation,  we  see  in  realiza¬ 
tion. 

2.  Paul,  as  well  as  Peter,  was  taught  a  divine  les¬ 
son  on  the  universal  need  of  man.  How  different 
his  experience  at  Athens  from  that  of  Peter  at  Cesa- 
rea,  yet  both  essentially  impress  one  great  lesson. 

That  “  altar  to  the  unknown  God  ”  in  the  very  cen¬ 
tre  of  Greek  art  and  wisdom,  beauty  and  philosophy, 
brands  as  a  failure  any  civilization  that  knows  not 
God,  because  it  has  no  savouring  or  saving  element — 
no  salt  of  salvation.  It  reminds  one  of  Heine’s  com¬ 
paring  beautiful  women  without  religion  to  flowers 
without  perfume — cold,  sober  tulips  in  china  vases, 
looking  as  though  they  were  also  of  porcelain,  and 
seeming  to  say  that  it  is  all-sufficient  not  to  have  a 
bad  odour,  and  that  a  rational  flower  needs  no  fra¬ 
grance.  Athens  stands  in  history  as  the  tulip  in  the 
vase,  coldly  beautiful,  lifelessly  aesthetic — having  no 
savour  or  flavour  of  high  moral  virtue  or  piety.  And 
Paul’s  comparative  ill  success  at  the  Greek  capital, 
and  the  apathetic  hearing  at  Mars  Hill,  serve  to  re¬ 
mind  us  that  stagnant  indifference  is  as  bad  as  vio¬ 
lent  opposition,  and  that  blasphemers  and  barbarians 
go  into  the  kingdom  of  God  before  scholarly  sceptics 
and  cultivated  worldlings.  As  yet  not  many  wise, 
mighty,  noble,  are  called.  God  chooses  the  foolish, 
weak,  despised  nothings  to  bring  to  naught  the  some¬ 
things.  And  yet  as  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon 
said,  let  us  thank  God  it  is  not  true  that  not  any , 
though  not  ma7iy  of  the  wise  and  mighty  are  called. 
There  was  one  Areopagite,  Dionysius,  who  clave  to 
the  Apostle,  so  that  the  address  on  Mars  Hill  won  one 
convert  even  from  the  philosophers.  The  loftiest  as 
well  as  lowliest  need  the  gospel,  and  we  are  to  pro¬ 
claim  it  at  Corinth  and  Athens  as  well  as  at  Nazareth 
and  Gadara. 

That  sermon  to  the  Areopagite  wise  men  should 
be  studied,  for  it  addresses  universal  and  conscious 
instincts  of  man’s  religious  nature.  It  was  a  unique 


182 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


address,  wholly  unlike  any  other  Paul  ever  delivered. 
In  it  he  spoke  to  those  who  knew  not  the  true  God 
nor  the  sacred  writings  of  His  prophets,  nor  the 
words  and  works  of  Jesus,  His  Son.  Hence  he  had 
to  go  further  back  and  deeper  down  than  when  he 
spoke  to  Felix  or  Agrippa,  to  Jews  at  Jerusalem  or 
Greeks  at  Antioch.  He  appealed  to  seven  universal 
instincts : 

1.  Th z  Filial:  “  For  we  also  are  His  offspring.” 

2.  The  Fraternal:  “  He  hath  made  of  one  blood,” 
&c. 

3.  The  Theistic :  “Your  altar  to  the  unknown 
God.” 

4.  The  Judicial:  “A  day  in  the  which  He  will 
judge  the  world.” 

5.  The  Religious:  “In  all  things  ye  are  very 
religious.” 

6.  The  instinct  of  Worship:  “Ye  ignorantly 
worship.” 

7.  The  instinct  of  Prayer:  “Should  feel  after 

Him,”&c. 

In  modern  days,  sagacious  missionaries  have 
learned  from  Paul  at  Athens,  that  in  every  clime 
they  may  find  classes  of  men  who  know  not  God, 
but  to  whose  instinctive  religious  nature  they  may 
appeal. 

The  universal  belief  in  God,  which,  however  ob¬ 
scured,  seemed  never  obliterated,  furnishes  a  basis 
for  preaching  the  gospel  to  all  men.  Fred.  Stanley 
Arnot  found  everywhere  in  Africa  two  existing 
notions:  First,  of  a  supreme  power  over  all;  and 
secondly,  of  a  future  life  beyond  death.  To  these  he 
could  always  safely  appeal.  And  even  in  Moham¬ 
medan  lands  where  little  has  yet  been  done,  encour¬ 
agements  are  not  wanting;  for  the  followers  of  the 
Prophet  are  not  idolaters,  and  claim  to  be  mono¬ 
theists,  and  to  accept  even  the  Old  Testament. 
Among  them  we  have  the  religious  instincts  com¬ 
paratively  pure. 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  FIELD . 


183 


3.  Paul's  night  vision  at  Troas  was  literally  vocal, 
for  the  man  of  Macedonia  prayed  him,  saying, 
“Come  over  into  Macedonia,  and  help  us;”  and 
from  that  vision  and  that  voice  he  assuredly  gathered 
that  the  Lord  was  calling  him  to  a  new  field  in  the 
regions  beyond.  And  so  the  gospel  first  entered 
Europe. 

That  vocal  vision  was  for  the  whole  Church,  and  it 
means  that  we  are  never  to  rest,  whatever  has  been 
done,  while  more  yet  remains  undone.  However 
wide  the  sweep  of  our  mission  tours,  if  beyond  this 
circle  of  effort  there  is  a  region  where  the  gospel  has 
not  reached,  this  fact  constitutes  a  trumpet  peal  of 
God.  And  especially  if  the  peal  ‘be  also  a  personal 
appeal ;  if,  as  in  so  many  cases,  human  need  finds  a 
voice  wherewith  to  call,  as  Mtesa  did  from  Uganda, 
as  Chulalangkorn  did  from  Siam,  as  Pomare  did 
from  Tahiti,  as  Ranavolona  II.  did  from  Madagas¬ 
car,  as  McAll  did  from  France, — how  prompt  should 
be  the  response  from  the  Church  of  Christ !  When 
out  of  the  region  of  darkness  and  death-shade, 
heathen  and  pagan  peoples  clamour  for  Christian 
teachers;  when  fields  are  ready  for  the  sower  and 
there  is  no  one  to  scatter  the  seed,  or  ready  for  the 
reaper  and  there  is  no  one  to  put  in  the  sickle ;  when 
doors  open  fast  and  wide,  and  no  labourers  enter  some 
of  them,  and  in  other  cases,  too  few,  why  do  we  not 
assuredly  gather  that  God  is  calling  us  to  go  and 
carry  the  cross  with  us?  Why  are  we  so  slow  to 
push  the  schemes  of  holy  work  into  new  territory, 
and  send  or  bear  the  bread  of  life  to  starving  souls  ? 
How  can  God  set  before  us  a  wider  and  more  effec¬ 
tual  door  than  when  the  heathen  themselves  are  ready 
to  hear  the  gospel,  and  make  appeal  to  us  to  come  to 
them? 

This  is  the  paradox  of  missions.  Where  are  our 
sandals  of  alacrity  that  we  speed  not  as  on  wings  of 
love  to  fly  to  the  help  of  the  perishing!  Had  we  the 
true  passion  for  souls,  Satan  would  no  longer  be  the 


1 


184 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


hinderer,  though  he  piled  up  obstacles  in  our  way. 
We  should  overleap  all  self-denials  in  our  zeal  to  re¬ 
lieve  soul-wants.  It  is  one  of  the  irreconcilable  con¬ 
tradictions  of  history  that  the  instinctive  human 
sympathies  have  more  readily  responded  to  the 
appeal  of  flood  or  famine,  pestilence  or  plague,  than 
the  Christian  heart  to  the  awful  need  of  those  who 
perish  of  hunger  for  living  bread,  or  who  are  swept 
away  by  the  flood  of  sin  and  smitten  with  the  leprosy 
of  self-consuming  lusts !  Temporal  wants  and  woes 
are  real  to  our  sluggish  sense,  but  we  are  dead  to  the 
spiritual  poverty  and  misery  of  humanity. 

That  night  vision  at  Troas  has  been  a  thousand 
times  repeated  within  the  last  century.  That  man 
of  Macedonia  may  be  seen  whichever  way  we  look, 
and  the  voice  calls  to  us  from  every  quarter  of  the 
horizon.  Who  that  watches  modern  missions  does 
not  feel  that  what  Paul  saw  and  heard  at  Troas  has 
become  the  vision  for  all  believers,  and  the  voice  from 
all  lands?  Let  the  eye  sweep  round  the  whole  world, 
and  on  the  coasts  of  Corea  and  Japan,  from  the 
depths  of  Inland  China,  from  the  hills  of  Burma  and 
the  rivers  of  Siam,  from  India’s  coral  strand  and 
Persia’s  plains,  from  the  borders  of  the  Red  Sea  and 
the  valley  of  the  Nile,  the  banks  of  the  Congo  and 
the  vast  stretch  of  the  Soudan,  from  papal  countries 
and  pagan  communities,  there  comes  one  loud  voice : 
“  Come  over  into  our  Macedonia  and  help  us.”  Were 
our  eyes  not  dull  of  vision,  and  our  ears,  of  hearing, 
through  the  flare  and  glare  and  blare  of  this  world, 
we  should  see  and  hear  this  “man  of  Macedonia,” 
standing  at  every  point  of  the  horizon,  stretching 
forth  hands  in  appeal,  and  calling  for  help. 

King  Mtesa,  whose  request  for  teachers  found 
such  voice  through  Stanley’s  letters  that  it  pealed 
across  thousands  of  miles  of  land  and  sea  and  was 
heard  in  Britain  and  America,  was  only  a  repre¬ 
sentative  of  the  race.  The  needs  of  Siam  have  been 
referred  to;  there,  cities  as  large  as  Birmingham 


THE  VISION  OE  THE  FIELD. 


m 


and  Edinburgh,  Leeds  and  Leicester,  are  asking 
vainly  for  one  evangelist  to  come  to  their  hundreds 
of  thousands,  and  tell  how  God  loved  the  world. 
Burma  and  the  Karens  have  never  had  all  the  help¬ 
ers  which  the  field  demanded.  Japan,  the  modern 
marvel,  suddenly  threw  open  her  long-locked  sea 
gates  forty  years  ago;  and  China,  India,  Central 
America,  Papal  Europe,  became  likewise  open  fields 
for  missions — all  within  a  twelvemonth!  And  yet 
the  devil  has  shown  more  zeal  to  take  possession 
than  the  children  of  God.  Read  the  story  of  the 
South  Seas,  and  see  how  the  consecrated  energy  of 
John  Hunt  and  John  Williams,  of  Geddie  and 
Marsden  and  Selwyn  and  Patteson  and  Paton  proved 
unequal  to  the  meeting  of  the  demands  for  Bibles 
and  men.  From  that  day  to  this  the  same  experience 
has  been  repeated  elsewhere.  For  centuries,  where 
Rome  ruled,  the  open  Bible  was  flung  into  the  flames 
and  the  Protestant  missionary  dared  prison  cell,  if 
not  martyr's  stake.  Now  France  has  over  a  hundred 
and  thirty  McAll  mission  salles ,  and  might  have 
a  thousand  but  for  want  of  money  and  men  ;  and 
the  land  of  the  Inquisition  is  growing  harvests  for 
God  in  the  very  fields  which  Torquemada  and  Valdez, 
Deza  and  Ximenes  unconsciously  fertilized  with  the 
ashes  of  thirty  thousand  saints.  Think  of  Bible  carts 
in  Madrid  unable  to  supply  books  sufficient  for  those 
who  would  buy;  and  a  few  elect  messengers  of  the 
cross  struggling  to  meet  the  wants  of  hundreds  who 
are  deserting  the  crucifix!  When  Ethiopia  thus 
stretches  forth  hands  unto  God,  when  China’s  mill¬ 
ions  call  for  missions,  and  Corea’s  valleys  begin  to 
be  vocal  with  praise;  when  the  capital  of  the  papacy 
has  thirty  Protestant  chapels  within  its  walls ;  when 
from  the  kingdom  of  the  sunrise  to  the  land  of  the 
sunset,  there  goes  up  one  call  for  Bibles,  schools  and 
churches,  teachers  and  preachers,  what  is  it  but  the 
call  from  Macedonia  repeated  like  a  thunder-peal  all 
around  the  circle  of  the  earth ! 


186 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


There  are  hindrances,  no  doubt,  in  the  way  of 
missions,  but  they  are  most  serious  within  the 
Church .  We  are  not  so  ready  to  send  messengers 
and  Bibles  as  the  unevangelized  often  are  to  receive. 
If  the  response  of  the  Church  were  as  quick  as  the 
appeal  from  the  world  is  loud,  within  our  generation 
every  hill  and  valley  of  the  earth  might  be  sending 
up  to  God  the  incense  of  prayer  and  praise. 

The  slowness  of  our  forward  march  is  saddening, 
but  no  words  can  fitly  characterize  the  sin  and  the 
crime  of  going  backward .  The  call  for  “retrench¬ 
ment  ”  is  like  the  tolling  of  a  death-knell  from  the 
belfry  of  our  missionary  boards.  Think  of  it !  For 
lack  of  men  and  means,  we  cannot  go  a  step  ahead 
even  to  enter  new  doors,  but  must  go  back  and  leave 
fields  already  occupied!  We  cannot  advance  but 
must  retreat — abandoning  vantage-ground  already 
gained,  and,  instead  of  taking  new  strongholds, 
evacuating  those  strategic  positions  now  held ! 
Think  of  closing  preaching  stations,  shutting  up 
schools,  turning  adrift  native  evangelists,  locking  up 
Christian  presses  with  silence,  calling  in  our  forces 
and  beating  a  retreat!  It  seems  incredible  ;  but 
every  time  the  cry  goes  forth,  retrench !  it  means  all 
this  and  a  great  deal  more ! 

When  Judson  was  in  the  very  crisis  of  his  work  in 
Burma,  the  appropriation  for  the  mission  was  ten 
thousand  rupees  less  than  the  current  expenses  re¬ 
quired.  Instead  of  any  advance,  he  could  not  even 
hold  his  already-gained  positions.  With  a  disap¬ 
pointment  that  bordered  on  despair,  he  solemnly 
recorded  as  his  ‘  ‘  growing  conviction”  that  “the 
Baptist  churches  in  America  are  behind  the  age  in 
missionary  spirit.  They  now  and  then  make  a  spas¬ 
modic  effort  to  throw  off  a  nightmare  debt  of  some 
years*  accumulation,  and  then  sink  back  into  uncon¬ 
scious  repose.  Then  come  paralyzing  orders  to  re¬ 
trench;  new  enterprises  are  checked  in  their  very 
conception,  and  applicants  for  missionary  employ  are 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  FIELD . 


187 


advised  to  wait,  and  soon  became  merged  in  the 
ministry  at  home.”  And  so  letters,  which  ought  to 
have  been  like  a  soft  and  cooling  breeze  to  a  heated 
brow,  came  upon  him  like  a  sudden  tornado,  sweep¬ 
ing  away  the  plans  of  missionary  evangelism.  He 
said  in  his  agony,  “  I  thought  they  loved  me;  and 
they  would  scarce  have  known  it  if  I  had  died!  I 
thought  they  were  praying  for  us;  and  they  have 
never  once  thought  of  us!”  And  so  it  seemed  to  the 
missionary  in  his  unsupported  work. 

4.  God  has  in  every  nation,  elect  saints;  because 
the  gospel  message  is  for  man  as  man,  converts  are 
gathered  out  of  most  unlikely  fields.  How  signifi¬ 
cant,  therefore,  were  that  vision  and  voice  at  Corinth, 
when  the  Lord  spake  to  Paul;  “Be  not  afraid  but 
speak,  and  hold  not  thy  peace;  for  I  am  with  thee, 
and  no  man  shall  set  on  thee  to  hurt  thee ;  for  I  have 
much  people  in  this  city.” 

That  vision  and  voice  were  for  the  whole  Church  and 
for  all  time.  Often  has  God  shown  that  even  where 
human  hate  builds  huge  walls  against  the  truth,  and 
human  wrath  builds  hot  fires  for  its  witnesses,  He 
has  much  people ;  and  that  the  faith  that  fears  not, 
can  face  the  foes  of  God  and  of  His  gospel  with  firm¬ 
ness  and  unfaltering  fixedness  of  heart,  still  wit¬ 
nessing  to  the  cross.  While  martyrs  have  burned, 
they  have  been  snatching  brands  from  worse  burn¬ 
ing  to  become  branches  of  the  true  vine;  and  by 
their  death  have  brought  life  to  their  very  mur¬ 
derers,  as  Stephen’s  stoning  was,  perhaps,  the  secret 
of  Saul’s  conversion. 

*  This  lesson  has  been  taught  us  so  repeatedly  in 
the  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles  that  it  must  be  re¬ 
served  for  special  treatment  when  we  come  to  con¬ 
sider  the  New  Signs  and  Wonders.  Suffice  it  now  to 
repeat  that  in  our  age  of  missions,  God  has  thus  in 
many  ways  taught  us  by  voices  and  visions  this 
second  great  lesson:  that  the  field  for  a  witnessing 
Church  is  the  whole  world  and  embraces  every 


188 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


creature.  Man’s  universal  need  gives  forth  its  con¬ 
scious  echo  in  response  to  the  good  tidings.  The 
worst  men  show  capacity  to  repent,  believe  in  Christ 
and  receive  the  Spirit.  Religious  instincts,  though 
buried,  are  not  dead,  and  when  exhumed,  revive. 
Even  in  ruins,  souls  have  a  dignity  and  majesty 
which  forbid  caste  lines  to  exclude  even  the  lowest 
classes  from  the  hope  of  saints  and  the  love  of  the 
brotherhood.  In  every  nation  God  has  accepted 
souls. 


IV. 


THE  NEW  LESSON  OF  THE  POWER. 

The  third  great  lesson  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
we  found  to  be,  that  the  secret  of  power  in  witness¬ 
ing  is  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God;  and  about  this,  as  the 
central  lesson,  all  others  cluster. 

A  remarkable  inversion  will  be  noticed,  which  can¬ 
not  be  without  meaning.  When  Luke  concludes  the 
gospel  narrative,  he  makes  our  Lord  to  say : 

“Ye  are  witnesses  of  these  things; 

“And,  behold,  I  send  the  promise  of  my  Father 
upon  you; 

“  But  tarry  ye  until  ye  be  endued  with  power  from 
on  high.” 

Contrast  this  with  Luke’s  account  of  our  Lord’s 
final  message  before  His  ascension : 

“Ye  shall  receive  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
coming  upon  you; 

“And  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me.” 

Here  the  order  of  the  former  thought  is  exactly 
reversed.  In  the  close  of  the  gospel,  it  was  first  the 
work  of  witnessing,  then  the  promise  of  power.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  Acts,  it  is  first  the  power,  then 
the  work  of  witness.  The  meaning  of  such  inversion 
is  not  enigmatic.  In  the  former  message,  the  Lord 
followed  the  order  natural  to  the  commission  of  a 
trust;  first,  the  thing  to  be  done;  then  the  secret  of 
its  well  doing.  But  in  the  latter,  the  trust  having 
been  committed  to  disciples,  the  all-important  thing 
is  to  fix  the  mind  upon  the  only  power  which  can 
assure  the  effective  execution  of  the  trust.  And  so 
with  us.  The  command  being  once  for  all  given, 
not  to  be  repeated,  the  one  matter  in  all  subsequent 
time  to  engross  attention,  is,  that  we  may  be  so  filled 
with  the  Spirit  of  all  power,  whose  infilling,  if  not 

189 


190 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES. 


outpouring,  is  forever  new,  that  we  may  fulfil  our 
Lord’s  great  commission. 

Power  is,  in  every  sphere  of  work,  the  one  all- 
important  requisite.  There  are  about  man  two  great 
constituent  elements:  a  body,  fearfully  and  wonder¬ 
fully  made — the  outward,  visible,  material  and  per¬ 
ishable  part;  and  the  spirit,  still  more  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  constituted — inward,  invisible,  immate¬ 
rial,  immortal.  In  the  original  creation,  4 ‘God  made 
man  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into 
his  nostrils  the  breath  or  spirit  of  lives,  and  man 
became  a  living  soul.”  What  a  divine  tribute  to  the 
dignity,  superiority,  majesty  of  the  spirit,  as  con¬ 
stituting  the  real  man,  of  whom  the  body  is  but  the 
house  of  habitation. 

This  truth  is  typical  and  suggestive.  About  all 
else  that  pertains  to  man  there  is,  first,  what  is  out¬ 
ward,  and  then,  what  is  inward ;  what  is  visible,  audi¬ 
ble,  palpable,  and  somewhat  beside  which  evades  all 
sense  tests ;  somewhat  that  is  transient,  and  somewhat 
that  is  permanent.  Intelligent  speech  has  its  body — 
the  spoken  word ;  and  its  soul — the  thought  which  only 
thought  can  catch  and  hold.  The  printed  page  is  a 
body  created  by  human  machinery,  but  enshrining 
an  invisible  something,  emanating  from  the  author’s 
secret  life.  All  man’s  work  has  a  body,  or  outward 
form  of  utterance,  action,  effort ;  but  that  which  gives 
it  value  is  the  subtle  spirit  that  pervades  it. 

In  the  “spiritual”  sphere,  whose  very  name  car¬ 
ries  a  lesson — this  distinction  is  vital.  The  prayer 
of  the  lips  is  but  an  empty  form,  unless  the  Spirit  of 
God  intercedes  through  and  prevails  in  it:  the  wit¬ 
nessing  word  becomes  the  power  of  God  to  salvation 
and  edification  only  when  it  is  the  body  which  He 
fills  and  thrills.  What  we  call  “unction”  is  not 
merely  a  fragrant  chrism  as  of  ointment  poured 
forth;  but  an  imparting  of  an  essentially  new  and 
divine  force ,  which  brings  and  is,  power.  Hence, 
Pentecost  was  the  condition  of  all  true  service,  so 


THE  NE  W  LESSON  OF  TIIE  TO  WER. 


191 


essential  that  disciples  were  bidden  to  ‘  ‘  wait  for  the 
promise  of  the  Father/’  to  “  tarry  until  endued  with 
power  from  on  high;  ”  for  until  that  power  was  given 
no  force  or  true  energy  could  be  exerted. 

It  is  often  said  that  it  is  worth  while  to  wait  upon 
God  for  the  Spirit’s  infilling,  because  of  the  increase  of 
power  thus  secured;  but  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
shows  us  a  far  deeper  truth,  that  up  to  the  point  of 
this  enduement  with  power,  work  is  waste .  We 
shall  find,  like  the  Greek  philosopher  who  experi¬ 
mented  upon  a  dead  body,  that  we  are  trying  to  give 
to  a  lifeless  form  the  erectness  and  energy  of  a  living 
body;  and,  like  him,  be  compelled  to  confess  that  it 
lacks  tl  evdov — something  within . 

When  James  writes,  “  The  body  without  the  spirit 
is  dead,”  he  gives  us  one  maxim  of  the  wisdom  that  is 
from  above.  He  turns  our  thought  back  to  that 
primal  mystery  of  man’s  creation  and  the  parallel 
mystery  of  his  dissolution;  with  the  spirit,  there  is  a 
living  body,  a  corpus;  without  the  spirit,  a  dead  body, 
a  corpse — a  mere  mass  of  dead  matter.  It  may  still 
retain  its  fine  and  beautiful  form  and  feature  and 
exquisite  organization;  but  it  has  no  power.  It  can¬ 
not  work,  or  walk,  or  stand  erect;  there  is  no  light 
in  the  eye,  no  hearing  in  the  ear,  no  response  to 
touch,  no  thought  in  the  brain — what  was  the  tem¬ 
ple  of  mind  is  the  chamber  of  death. 

But  the  inspired  writer  teaches  a  deeper  truth,  of 
which  this  is  but  a  parable:  “So  faith  without 
works  is  dead  also” — a  profession  of  faith  is  but  a 
lifeless  form,  however  fair,  until  the  spirit  of  life 
vitalizes  and  energizes  it,  and  makes  possible  the 
works  of  God.  The  Scripture  maxim  teaches  a  lesson 
broad  enough  to  cover  the  whole  world  of  man’s  ac¬ 
tivity  and  duty.  His  creed,  his  character,  his  wor¬ 
ship,  his  service,  even  his  sacrifice — all  are  dead, 
unless  and  until,  behind,  beneath,  within  them  all,  the 
spirit  of  life  is  found.  The  form  of  sound  words  with¬ 
out  the  spirit  of  faith  and  love  in  Christ  Jesus,  is  dead 


192 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  TIIE  APOSTLES . 


orthodoxy.  The  form  of  worship,  however  decorous 
and  devout,  is,  without  the  spirit,  dead  formalism, 
ritualism — a  censer,  it  may  be  of  gold,  set  with  gems, 
but  empty  of  all  incense.  The  form  of  godliness  with¬ 
out  the  power  of  the  spirit,  becomes  dead  works,  a  self- 
righteous,  soul-deceiving  morality  or  external  piety, 
as  different  from  true  godliness  as  a  tomb  is  from  a 
temple.  Even  godly  service  and  self-sacrifice  may  in 
God’s  eyes  be  a  dead  body,  inspired  by  no  spirit  of 
loyalty  to  Christ  or  charity  and  sympathy  toward 
men ;  empty  of  soul  as  the  sound  of  a  brass  trumpet 
or  the  clangour  of  a  silver  cymbal,  worse  than  empti¬ 
ness — nothing! 

Is  there  no  reason  that  this  most  vital  truth  be 
taught  at  the  very  opening  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos¬ 
tles  ?  What  more  important  lesson  than  this  which 
touches  all  effective  service, — this  base-block  of  all 
missions :  that  only  when  God’s  Spirit  possesses  and 
controls,  can  we  work  or  witness  with  power!  Until 
then,  the  best  we  can  do  is  but  a  body  without  soul, 
a  form  of  service  without  the  force  which  gives  it 
power  and  assures  to  it  success.  That  lesson  God 
thought  so  needful,  that  in  this  great  book  of  primi¬ 
tive  missions  it  is  the  first  taught,  and  taught  with 
tongues  of  fire ! 

Witnessing  to  Christ  is  therefore  the  Spirit  of  God 
using  a  human  voice.  Let  the  Spirit  be  lacking,  and 
there  may  be  wisdom  of  words,  but  not  the  wisdom 
of  God ;  the  power  of  oratory,  but  not  the  power  of 
God ;  the  demonstration  of  argument  and  the  logic  of 
the  schools,  but  not  the  demonstration  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  all-convincing  logic  of  his  lightning  flash, 
such  as  convinced  Saul  before  the  Damascus  gate. 
When  the  Spirit  was  outpoured  and  disciples  were 
all  filled  with  power  from  on  high,  the  most  unlet¬ 
tered  tongue  could  silence  gainsayers,  and  with  its 
new  fire  burn  its  way  through  obstacles  as  flames 
fanned  by  mighty  winds  sweep  through  forests. 

The  study  of  the  universe  discloses  to  us  a  mysteri- 


THE  NE  W  LESSON  OF  TILE  FO  WER. 


193 


ous  quality,  as  in  man.  The  whole  creation  of  God 
as  a  whole,  consists  of  a  body  and  a  spirit — matter 
and  force.  Matter  is  inert  and  motionless — power¬ 
less  to  effect  results,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  until 
force  lays  hold  on  it.  There  is  nothing  to  be  feared 
in  all  God’s  universe  but  force.  What  are  the  huge 
mountain  without  gravitation,  the  Slackest  masses  of 
storm-cloud  without  electricity,  the  gigantic  sun 
without  light  and  heat,  the  earthquake’s  awful  vio¬ 
lence  without  chemical  affinity,  the  shock  of  collid¬ 
ing  orbs  in  space  without  momentum?  And  as  only 
force  is  fearful,  only  force  is  forceful.  If  we  seek 
power  we  must  go  not  to  matter,  that  in  itself  has 
not  even  power  to  lie  still;  but  to  that  by  which 
matter  is  held,  -  moved,  swayed,  ruled,  and  which  is 
the  nearest  to  what  in  man  we  call  spirit. 

No  more  wonderful  fact  confronts  us  in  our  actual 
experience  of  contact  with  this  universe  of  God  than 
the  power  He  has  given  to  man  of  commanding  and 
controlling  these  eternal  forces.  They  all  move  in 
obedience  to  certain  conditions  or  in  certain  channels 
or  modes  of  activity,  which  we  call  “laws;”  and, 
therefore,  intelligent  beings  can  discover  the  secret  of 
wielding  them.  If  man,  in  ignorance  of  these  laws 
or  in  daring  disobedience  to  them,  transgresses,  disre¬ 
gards  or  opposes  them,  these  forces  are  destructive 
beyond  description.  Gravitation  dashes  him  to 
pieces,  heat  blasts  him  or  consumes  him,  even  light 
tortures  and  blinds  him ;  chemical  affinity  and  repul¬ 
sion  are  his  enemy  and  bring  instant  and  awful  ruin 
to  him  and  his  finest  work ;  all  nature  becomes  his 
deadly  foe,  and  unites  all  her  gigantic  and  resist¬ 
less  forces  to  overwhelm  him  with  swift  destruction. 

On  the  other  hand,  let  man  but  obey  the  law  of 
THE  FORCE,  AND  THE  FORCE  OBEYS  HIM !  He  obeys 

the  laws  of  light  and  it  becomes  his  servant,  the  deft 
artist  that  with  unerring  hand  draws  for  him,  with 
the  Sunbeam  as  its  pencil,  the  face  of  a  friend  or  the 
scenery  of  nature,  delineating  with  the  skill  of  per- 


194 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


fection  every  line  and  lineament,  the  delicate  tracery 
of  every  leaf  or  blade  of  grass.  Man  observes  the 
laws  of  heat,  and  it  becomes  the  refiner  and  purifier 
of  his  precious  metals,  melting,  moulding  the  most 
stubborn  material  into  any  desired  form.  He  calls 
on  gravity,  and  it  comes  as  a  master  mechanic  with 
a  Titanic  hammer  to  beat  the  rocks  to  powder,  and 
as  his  smith  to  work  night  and  day  at  the  forge. 
Man  learns  to  control  chemical  attraction  and  repul¬ 
sion,  and  effects  marvellous  combinations  which  make 
the  universe  his  laboratory;  or  nitrogen,  the  lazy 
giant,  comes  with  explosives  to  open  the  very  bowels 
of  the  earth  and  reveal  all  mineral  riches.  Heat 
turns  water  into  one  of  the  greatest  motive  powers 
known,  and  drags  his  chariots  over  land  and  his  vessels 
over  the  seas  as  though  thirty  thousand  horses  were 
yoked  to  them.  Man  obeys  the  laws  of  magnetism 
and  it  becomes  his  pilot  over  trackless  wastes  of 
waters;  or  he  calls  the  very  lightning  to  serve  as 
motor,  messenger,  illuminator. 

Let  us  follow  the  analogy  to  a  higher  plane.  God 
says,  “Concerning  the  work  of  My  hands  command 
ye  Me !  ”  Stupendous  mystery !  The  Spirit  of  God 
has  His  chosen  channels  and  methods;  and  this  Su¬ 
preme  Force  of  the  universe  offers  Himself  to  serve 
man  for  the  ends  of  the  Work  of  God.  Is  it  not  still 
true,  and  may  it  not  with  reverence  be  said,  “Obey 
the  law  of  the  divine  force  and  the  force  obeys  you?” 
When  God’s  Spirit  controls  the  man,  in  a  sublime 
sense  the  man  controls  the  Spirit ;  that  is,  he  wields 
spiritual  power.  This  paradox,  like  many  others,  is 
a  truth.  “God  hath  given  the  Holy  Ghost  to  all 
that  obey  Him,”*  and  he  who  has  the  Spirit  of  God, 
wields  the  power  of  God.  Let  any  humble  disciple 
submit  wholly  to  the  Spirit’s  sovereign  control,  and 
He  becomes  to  that  disciple  all  and  more  than  all  that 
nature’s  forces  become  to  humanity  when  guided  by 
scientific  intelligence, — his  artist  to  delineate  for  him 

Acts,  v.  32. 


THE  NE  W  LESSON  OF  TIIE  PO  WER. 


195 


things  divine  and  celestial,  his  refiner  and  purifier  to 
purge  away  the  dross  from  character  and  mould  him 
into  a  chosen  vessel,  his  giant  helper  to  subdue  all 
foes  before  him,  his  pilot  over  life’s  unknown  sea, 
his  motive  power  in  holy  enterprise,  his  messenger 
between  earth  and  heaven,  and  his  illuminator  in  the 
darkness  of  midnight  and  mystery.  The  Spirit  of 
God  bows  low  and  condescends  to  offer  to  be  the 
servant  of  those  who  serve  God,  to  shape  character 
after  a  divine  pattern,  and  make  our  works  the  works 
of  God.  And  therefore  it  is  that  our  Saviour  bade 
His  disciples  wait ,  tarrying  until  endued,  for  up  to 
that  point  power  was  not  theirs. 

Of  this  first  lesson  of  the  Acts  the  whole  book  is 
the  illustration  which  constantly  repeats  and  enforces 
the  lesson  by  examples  of  power  from  on  high. 
Pentecost  was  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  from  on 
high ;  the  Apostolic  age  traces  the  flowing  and 
widening  and  branching  out  of  His  streams.  These 
chapters  are  channels  revealing  His  power,  new  ex¬ 
amples  and  proofs  of  what  the  Spirit  can  and  will  do, 
when  He  actually  dwells  in,  works  in  and  works 
through  disciples. 


V. 


THE  NEW  MINISTRY  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

This  book  may  well  be  called  the  Acts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  since  He  is  here  thus  pre-eminent.  Out  of 
all  the  references  to  the  Spirit  of  God  found  in  the 
New  Testament,  four-fifths  are  found  here.  He 
filled  disciples  with  His  own  power,  separated  and 
sent  forth  missionaries,  appointed  overseers  in  the 
Church,  and  witnessed  with  disciples.  But  more 
than  this,  this  is  the  book  of  His  personal  presence . 
He  was  so  among  them  that  they  walked  in  His 
comfort — ry  TcapaKXrjaei — in  his  paracletism;  that  is, 
He  became  actually  the  Paraclete,  the  personal  sub¬ 
stitute  for  Christ’s  own  self.  And  how  beautifully  is 
this  personal  presence  acknowledged  at  that  first 
council  at  Jerusalem:  “  It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  to  us” — He  meeting  with  and  counselling 
with  them,  and  all  coming  to  a  common  conclusion ! 
How  august,  yet  how  precious,  such  a  sense  of  His 
actual  personal  presence,  when  Peter  can  say  to 
Ananias,  “  Why  hath  Satan  filled  thine  heart  to  lie  to 
the  Holy  Ghost,”  as  though  He  stood  there  behind 
Peter  as  the  real  presiding  officer!  Yes,  there  He 
was,  the  Holy  Spirit,  making  more  than  good  to 
them  Christ’s  absence,  so  that  in  Him  their  ascended 
Lord  had  come  back  to  stay  and  dwell  among  them 
and  in  them ;  to  plan  for  them,  and  send  them  where 
He  would  have  them  go;  to  embolden  them  in  pres¬ 
ence  of  foes,  and  encourage  them  by  stretching  forth 
His  hand  to  heal  and  save.  Here,  indeed,  are  the 
Acts  of  the  Spirit,  for  without  Him  not  a  step  is 
taken.  The  Church  is  the  body  of  Christ,  and  Christ 
is  the  head,  and  the  Spirit  of  Life  is  the  vital  power 
filling  the  body,  guiding  its  movements,  and  work¬ 
ing  through  its  members. 

196 


THE  NEW  MINISTRY  OF  TIIE  SPIRIT. 


197 


Within  the  compass  of  this  book  the  Spirit  may  be 
seen  exercising  all  His  gracious  offices,  in  the  new 
birth  of  regeneration,  the  nurture  and  growth  of 
sanctification  and  edification,  the  enduement  and 
endowment  of  service,  convincing  gainsayers  and 
converting  even  persecutors,  and  both  edifying  and 
multiplying  the  Churches. 

So  all  important  is  this  ministry  of  the  Spirit  that 
it  is  the  only  law  of  consecration  known  in  the  Acts. 
Every  person  and  place  and  time  which  He  touches 
becomes  sacred.  Every  worshipper  whom  He  guides 
is  a  priest,  every  spot  he  fills  with  His  presence  is  a 
sanctuary,  and  every  day  becomes  sacred  because 
His  work  pervades  it.  We  look  in  vain  here  for  any 
traces  of  ecclesiasticism,  ceremonialism,  sacramen- 
tarianism ;  or,  if  found  here,  they  are  only  as  relics  of 
a  perverted  Judaism  or  leavening  paganism,  curios¬ 
ities,  interesting  only  to  antiquarians  and  befitting  a 
museum. 

Prayer  and  preaching  make  a  sanctuary  wherever 
believers  gather,  and  wherever  souls  are  new-born  is  a 
new  shrine  of  the  Nativity.  Even  temple  courts 
have  no  longer  a  monopoly  of  worship.  The  house 
of  Mary,  the  gateway  at  Lystra,  the  jail  at  Philippi, 
the  school  of  Tyrannus,  market-place  or  theatre, 
street  corner  or  river  side,  if  only  praise  and  prayer 
go  up  and  blessings  come  down,  become  hallowed, 
and  believers  say,  “  Surely  God  is  in  this  place;  this 
is  none  other  but  the  house  of  God,  this  is  the  gate 
of  heaven.” 

i.  One  most  marked  effect  of  the  Spirit’s  presence 
was  seen  in  the  unselfish  spirit  which  He  breathed 
into  saints.  “  Sacrifice,”  as  Mr.  Froude  has  said, 
“is  the  first  element  of  religion,  and  resolves  itself 
into  the  love  of  God.  Let  the  thought  of  self 
intrude;  let  the  painter  but  pause  to  consider  how 
much  reward  his  work  will  bring  to  him,  and  the 
cunning  will  forsake  his  hand,  and  the  power  of 
genius  will  be  gone.  Excellence  is  proportioned  to 


198 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


the  oblivion  of  self.”  In  witnessing  for  Christ  His 
image  so  filled  disciples  as  to  displace  that  last  idol — 
self;  and  the  Spirit  so  filled  His  own  temple  as  to 
pervade  it  with  an  atmosphere  of  self-forgetfulness. 

Observe,  for  instance,  the  absence  of  all  money 
considerations  or  salaried  offices.  No  soft-lined  nest 
allured  the  self-denying  worker;  no  tempting  bait 
drew  the  preacher  to  bite  at  the  devil’s  hook  of 
greed;  no  increase  of  stipend  cleared  his  eye  to  read 
the  doubtful  call  of  Providence.  As  yet  no  “  crozier 
golden”  had  made  “  bishops  wooden.”  Service 
seems  to  have  been,  if  not  gratuitously  rendered,  sup¬ 
ported  only  by  free-will  offerings. 

Is  there  no  possible  voice  here  for  the  Church  of 
to-day?  Is  not  jealousy  for  money  compensation  any 
hindrance  to  true  missionary  work?  Imagine  Philip 
sending  ahead  a  financial  agent  to  secure  proper 
remuneration  for  his  evangelistic  work  in  Samaria ; 
or  Barnabas,  that  son  of  consolation,  charging  so 
much  a  week  for  his  ministry  to  new  converts  at 
Antioch;  or  Peter,  hesitating  at  Joppa  till  he  knew 
whether  the  fee  for  his  visit  to  Cesarea  would  at 
least  cover  expenses  and  entertainment;  or  Paul, 
taking  a  collection  at  Mars  Hill,  or  asking  offerings 
to  cover  rent  for  his  hired  house  at  Rome.  While  it 
is  lawful  that  they  who  preach  the  gospel  should  live 
of  the  gospel,  that  law  may  easily  become  a  cloak 
for  avarice.  We  must  go  outside  of  this  short  his¬ 
tory  of  early  missions  to  find  a  vindication  for  grow¬ 
ing  rich  upon  pew-rents,  while  a  thousand  millions 
are  dying  without  the  bread  of  life ;  or,  for  paying 
hired  singers  and  operatic  “  stars”  enough  every 
year  to  put  three  or  four  more  missionaries  into  the 
field.  Satan  never  won  a  greater  victory  than  when 
he  made  the  pulpit  a  horse-block  whereby  to  vault 
into  the  saddle  of  ambition;  or  the  pastorate  a  com¬ 
fortable  hammock  of  luxurious  ease ;  or  the  service  to 
souls  an  avenue  to  wealth.  Such  perversions  have 
gone  far  both  to  destroy  the  simplicity  of  a  life 


THE  NEW  MINISTRY  OE  THE  SPIRIT.  190 


of  faith  and  the  power  of  an  unselfish  witness  to 
Christ. 

This  voice  and  this  vision  must  once  more  waken 
the  Church.  Everything  depends  upon  having  the 
Spirit  with  us  in  His  presence  and  power. 

2.  He  alone  can  supply  new  apostles .  What  a 
divine  voice  is  heard  in  the  conversion  of  Saul! 
Suddenly  arrested  in  his  persecuting  career,  threaten¬ 
ing  and  slaughter  are  exchanged  for  prayer  and 
preaching;  the  fiery  breath  of  the  Cilician  dragon 
gives  place  to  ardent,  fervent  witness  to  Jesus.  The 
arch-persecutor  and  destroyer  becomes  foremost  of 
Apostles  and  pioneer  of  missionaries.  Hear  God’s 
voice  in  this  event,  proclaiming  the  sovereignty  of 
that  grace  which  snatches  from  the  hands  of  Jewish 
rulers  the  chalice  full  of  the  poison  of  their  wrath, 
and  makes  of  it  God’s  chosen  vessel  to  bear  before 
gentiles  and  kings,  yea,  and  the  very  Israel  which 
those  rulers  represented,  the  hated  name  of  Jesus. 

The  Spirit  alone  can  separate  His  saints  for  mis¬ 
sionary  service.  He  is  therefore  the  ultimate  Source 
of  supplies  for  the  field.  The  same  Barnabas  and 
Saul,  sent  forth  by  the  Church,  were  also  sent  forth 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  in  this  double  fact  we  have 
God’s  voice,  announcing  the  twin  condition  of  all 
successful  missionary  ministry:  that  the  labourers 
shall  be  closely  linked  with  the  Church  as  its  repre¬ 
sentatives,  and  be  qualified  as  well  as  commissioned 
by  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  authority  of  the  Church 
is  secondary  to  that  other  and  higher  authority ;  but 
both  are  needful  as  conditions  of  the  highest  service. 
We  must  not  be  reckless  of  forms,  but  must  seek 
a  higher  than  any  formal  ordination  or  separation. 
Where  workmen  are  independent  and  irresponsible, 
amenable  to  no  authority,  their  zeal  is  sometimes 
without  knowledge,  and  they  are  more  active  than 
efficient.  Not  a  few  who  entered  by  no  regular  door 
but  climbed  up  some  other  way,  have  proved  more 
adepts  in  subtraction  and  division  than  in  addition 


200 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


and  multiplication,  in  missionary  mathematics.  To 
keep  the  Church  in  close  touch  with  the  field,  the 
missionary  must  be  sent  forth  by  the  Church,  as  one 
who  is  known,  loved,  trusted;  then  the  work  at 
home  and  abroad  is  bound  together  by  a  living  bond, 
like  the  nervous  system  in  the  body  with  its  effluent 
and  refluent  action. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  no  human  election,  educa¬ 
tion,  ordination,  can  qualify  for  God’s  work.  The 
Spirit  says,  *  ‘  Separate  Me — for  the  work  whereunto  / 
have  called  them”  Instead  of  our  appointing  labourers 
and  then  asking  for  them  proper  qualifications,  must 
we  not  invert  the  order?  and  first  waiting  to  see 
whom  the  Spirit  appoints  and  anoints,  send  them 
forth.  Laying  hands  suddenly  on  no  man,  laying 
stress  on  graces  more  than  on  gifts,  we  must  value 
above  all  else  the  one  qualification  which  makes  all 
others  needless — namely,  that  they  who  go  forth 
have  been  under  the  tuition  and  bear  the  commission 
of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  Church  that  is  prepared  by  prayer  and  fast¬ 
ing  to  hear  and  heed  the  Spirit’s  voice  will  be  a 
missionary  Church.  But  that  is  always  a  still  small 
voice,  and  is  drowned  by  the  voices  of  worldly 
clamour,  of  contending  passions  and  hollow  mirth. 
The  Moravian  Brotherhood  has  led  the  van,  both  in 
proportion  of  workers  sent  forth  and  of  gifts  contrib¬ 
uted  to  their  support,  because  in  the  constitution, 
worship  and  working  of  the  “Unitas  Fratrum,”  the 
Spirit  finds  less  to  hinder  Him  from  being  heard 
when  He  speaks.  And  so  it  is  out  of  revivals  of 
religion  that  missionary  impulses  have  been  born  or 
revived.  Meetings  for  fasting  and  prayer,  and  for 
deeper  spiritual  life,  have  been  the  matrix  where 
missionaries  have  been  moulded.  While  Laodicean 
churches  have  lulled  their  members  to  sleep  with  an 
easy  religion  of  the  world  and  a  monotonous  drone 
of  ritual,  and  religious  club-houses  have  drawn 
disciples  into  the  snares  of  luxurious  indulgence  and 


THE  NEIV  MINISTRY  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 


201 


refined  selfishness,  the  purer,  and  generally  the 
poorer,  Churches  have  been  fertile  mothers  of  mis¬ 
sions  all  over  the  world. 

3.  The  Spirit  uses  His  own  schools  and  teachers 
for  training  His  servants.  Witness  that  significant 
record  of  the  service  rendered  by  the  tent-makers  of 
Corinth  to  the  eloquent  Apollos.  When  that  gifted 
Alexandrian  Jew,  so  mighty  in  the  Septuagint  Scrip¬ 
tures,  came  to  Ephesus,  like  certain  other  disciples 
whom  Paul  found  in  Diana’s  capital,  he  had  not  got 
beyond  John’s  baptism  of  repentance.  And  Pris¬ 
cilla  and  Aquila,  who  made  tents  for  a  living,  turned 
their  home  into  a  theological  school  for  this  one 
pupil ;  and  it  was  in  their  humble  lodgings  that  this 
silver  tongue  was  taught  to  expound  the  way  of  God 
more  perfectly,  and,  with  a  new  baptism  of  the 
Spirit,  mightily  to  convince  the  Jews  that  Jesus  was 
the  Christ.  What  a  lesson  on  missionary  training- 
schools,  when  some  obscure  saint  gives  the  finishing 
touch  to  God’s  choicest  workman ! 

4.  The  Holy  Spirit  makes  every  work  a  divine 
calling.  Tabitha’s  resuscitation  at  Joppa  was  an¬ 
other  voice  of  God  proclaiming  that  service  depends 
on  no  sphere,  and  is  limited  by  no  narrow  circle  of 
work.  All  forms  of  honest  labour  may  witness  for 
God,  and  alms-deeds*  have  no  stereotyped  model. 
Dorcas  may  have  been  a  chronic  invalid,  dumb  or 
palsied  and  bedridden.  But  she  had  left  to  her, 
hands  that  could  hold  a  needle;  and  the  coats  and 
garments  that  she  made  to  clothe  widows  and 
orphans  were  as  true  signs  of  a  missionary  as  the 
sermons  of  Peter  or  the  tours  of  Paul.  Whoever  in 
his  calling  abides  with  God,  is  a  missionary.  If 
there  be  first  a  willing  mind  it  is  accepted,  according 
to  that  a  man  hath  and  not  according  to  that  he  hath 
not.  Then  the  willing  disciple,  like  Hercules,  is  a 
victor,  whether  he  walks  or  works,  stands  or  sits. 

5.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  heard  all  through  the 
Acts,  teaching  that  witness  to  Christ  is  natural  and 


202  THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

necessary  to  a  true  disciple,  and  is  a  condition  of  His 
full  salvation.  The  tenth  chapter  of  Romans  pre¬ 
sents  God’s  scheme  for  universal  missions:  a  message 
of  faith,  heard  by  the  ear,  entering  the  heart,  and  then 
going  out  by  the  gates  of  speech  to  find  its  way  to 
another  ear,  another  heart,  another  tongue ;  and  so 
each  hearer,  who  becomes  a  believer,  becomes  also 
a  witness.  What  can  be  more  sublimely  simple  and 
more  quickly  effectual !  A  word  of  life  winging  its 
way  from  lip  to  ear,  from  ear  to  heart,  from  heart  to 
lip,  and  so  in  endless  circles  till  the  last  unbeliever 
hears  the  message. 

Here  is  an  Apostolic  succession,  indeed!  And 
observe  that  he  who  hears  and  believes,  but  does 
not  confess  and  proclaim,  breaks  up  the  succession , 
and  like  a  wheel  whose  inaction  clogs  the  machinery, 
so  far  as  he  is  concerned,  stops  all  the  other  wheels 
and  disturbs  the  divine  order.  He  who  believes  but 
does  not  testify,  is  not  only  hindering  the  growth  of 
the  Church,  but  its  continuance ;  for  without  witnesses 
there  can  be  no  new  generation  of  believers.  Mis¬ 
sions  are  the  nursing-mother  of  converts  and 
Churches.  Love  seeks  not  inlets,  but  outlets,  and  is 
jealous  of  limits. 

6.  The  Holy  Spirit’s  administration  in  the  Church 
will  make  both  giving  and .  going  easy.  He  so 
unites  saints  in  one  body  that  members  have  care 
one  for  another,  and  move  together,  in  common 
work  for  common  ends. 

The  dearth  which  Agabus  foretold  was  a  voice  of 
God,  calling  disciples  to  send  relief  to  hungry  saints 
in  Judea.  Infinitely  more,  then,  is  world-wide 
famine  of  the  Bread  of  Life,  God’s  call  for  prompt 
and  ample  provision  for  poor  and  starving  souls. 
All  believers  form  one  community,  and  suffer  or 
rejoice  together.  There  must  be  no  schism  in  the 
body.  And  the  whole  race  is  by  nature  one  family, 
and  what  some  lack,  the  surplus  of  others  must 
supply,  until,  as  John  Howard  said,  4 ‘Our  lux- 


THE  NEW  MINISTRY  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 


203 


uries  give  way  to  the  comforts  of  the  poor;  our 
comforts  to  their  necessities,  and  even  our  necessities 
to  their  extremities.”  No  want  must  plead  in  vain. 

Each,  according  to  ability,  should  contribute  will¬ 
ingly  and  cheerfully;  and  remoteness  of  abode 
must  become  neighbourhood  of  need.  When  this 
lesson  is  learned  as  only  the  Spirit  can  teach  it,  even 
our  poverty  will  abound  unto  the  riches  of  our  liber¬ 
ality.  Nature  and  sin  have  made  all  men  akin. 
“  He  that  withholdeth  corn,  the  people  shall  curse 
him;  ”  man’s  inhumanity  to  man  still  keeps  countless 
thousands  mourning  their  own  awful  destitution. 
Missionary  meetings  must  not  only  “  work  up  ”  the 
missionary  spirit,  but  “  work  it  down,”  deeper  and 
deeper,  till  it  reaches  our  selfishness  and  casts  it  out. 
To  this  only  the  Holy  Spirit  is  equal.  When  He 
actually  resides  in  the  Church,  and  presides  over  it, 
every  appeal  in  behalf  of  lost  souls  becomes  a  plea 
in  Jesus’  name;  nay,  Christ  becomes  the  pleader, 
and  it  becomes  easier  to  respond  than  to  refuse. 

A  new  standard  of  giving  will  be  adopted  by  the 
Church  whenever  the  Spirit  once  more  pervades  it 
with  His  living  power.  Greed  is  to-day  dominant 
even  among  disciples.  It  is  changing  some  of  them 
into  coin,  so  that  they  have  a  metallic  ring  and  will 
drop  into  the  coffin  with  a  chink.  The  ministry  of 
money  is  not  understood  or  appreciated;  men  are 
purse-proud  because  they  have  no  sense  of  steward¬ 
ship  ;  they  think  of  their  gains  as  their  own,  and  of  giv¬ 
ing  as  an  act  of  merit;  and  so  become  arrogant  and 
sometimes  defiant  in  their  avarice.  How  quickly 
when  God’s  Spirit  possesses  us  do  we  see  that  noth¬ 
ing  is  our  own,  and  even  we  ourselves  are  slaves  paid 
for  in  blood  and  made  free  at  a  great  price ;  and  so 
we,  and  all  we  have,  belong  to  our  Redeemer !  To 
such  a  man  hoarded  gains  seem  heaps  of  cankered 
coin  whose  rust  is  an  accusation. 

There  is  another  and  more  awful  side  to  this  mat¬ 
ter.  Ananias  and  Sapphira  died  for  the  sin  of  sacri- 


204 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


lege  in  trifling  with  their  stewardship.  Achan  was 
guilty  of  a  similar  sin  and  suffered  a  like  judicial 
death.  Something  devoted  to  the  Lord  and  His  by 
right  was  kept  back  from  Him  for  selfish  ends. 
That  was  all!  But  at  these  two  turning  points  in 
sacred  history  there  stand  two  cairns  of  black  stones 
— mute  warnings  that  just  there  is  the  point  of 
peril,  where  the  step,  the  slip,  may  prove  fatal. 
When  God  in  any  way  calls  for  our  gifts,  at  our  peril 
we  withhold ;  no  sudden  death-blow  may  fall,  but  a 
subtle  putrefaction  or  silent  petrifaction  attacks  char¬ 
acter  and  leaves  spiritual  life  to  awful  decay  and 
deadness. 

7.  When  God’s  Spirit  moves  in  the  Church  there 
is  a  holy  cessation  of  all  undue  carefulness  as  to 
results.  However  much  we  rejoice  over  converts, 
we  are  not  unduly  depressed  when  Paul’s  experience 
at  Rome  is  repeated ;  when  notwithstanding  untiring 
toil  and  testimony  in  preaching  and  teaching,  some 
believe  not,  or  even  harden  themselves  in  rejection 
of  the  truth. 

To  some  the  same  divine  word  which  is  a  savour  of 
life  to  others,  becomes  a  savour  of  death  unto  death ; 
not  wings  by  which  to  soar,  but  weights  by  which 
to  sink.  God  drops  down  roses  of  paradise,  but  when 
they  touch  hard  hearts,  they  become  like  burning  coals 
of  fire.  The  book  of  the  Acts  is  a  narrative  of  mis¬ 
sionary  labours,  but  records  as  many  failures  as  suc¬ 
cesses.  But  in  God’s  eyes  our  failures  are  often 
successes,  and  our  successes  are  often  failures. 
Duty  is  ours — let  Him  take  care  of  all  other 
issues. 

The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles  abounds  in  voices 
and  visions  of  God.  But  not  every  one  hears  or 
sees.  Once  He  spoke  in  thunders,  now  in  whispers ; 
once  He  was  seen  in  flashes  of  light,  now  He  reveals 
Himself  only  to  the  vision  of  faith.  They  who  walk 
the  crowded  thoroughfares  with  the  worldly  and 
the  frivolous,  amid  the  din  of  Mammon  worshippers 


THE  NEW  MINISTRY  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 


205 


and  the  blaze  of  fashion’s  superficial  glory,  will 
neither  hear  the  voice  nor  see  the  vision. 

The  drift  of  the  age  is  toward  the  idolatry  of  self, 
and  no  man  can  serve  two  masters.  We  must  make 
our  choice.  He  who  often  seeks  God  in  the  secret 
place  and  keeps  silence  before  Him,  will  hear  voices 
that  wax  louder  and  clearer  until  the  closet  of 
communion  becomes  the  audience-chamber  of  the 
King ;  and  will  get  such  glimpses  of  the  glory  of  God, 
that  to  him  a  door  will  again  be  opened  into  Heaven 
itself. 


T 


Part  IV. 

THE  NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS 


/ 


I. 


\ 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  CONVERSION. 

Art  may  borrow  models  from  nature  and  imitate 
her ;  but  life  itself  defies  all  rivalry.  Between  Alexan¬ 
dria  and  Cairo  is  a  row  of  palms,  planted  at  equal 
intervals  and  meeting  overhead,  which  suggests 
whence  architecture  gets  its  columnar  forms  with 
their  capitals  and  arches.  But  however  elegant  and 
graceful,  sculptured  forms  are  stiff  and  dead.  God’s 
palms  differ  from  art’s  pillars,  for  they  are  living 
growths. 

Conversion  is  God’s  perpetual  miracle.  There  are 
transformations  in  the  lives  and  souls  of  men  which 
cannot  be  counterfeited.  They  are  not  wrought  by 
human  hands  as  by  hammer  and  chisel;  but  are 
growths  of  a  hidden  seed  of  new  life,  the  planting  of 
the  Lord  that  He  might  be  glorified.  Reformation 
of  outward  conduct  may  be  due  not  to  grace  but  to 
selfishness,  for  manners  and  morals  are  a  passport  to 
good  society,  while  profligacy  is  the  foe  of  respect¬ 
ability.  Amid  the  death-shade  of  heathenism,  a 
high  type  of  morality  has  been  sometimes  found,  be¬ 
cause  it  was  believed  to  be  the  price  of  favour  with 
the  gods.  But  regeneration,  which  changes  not  only 
outward  habits  and  conduct,  but  the  inward  nature  and 
character,  so  that  new  tastes,  affections  and  affinities 
control ;  the  conversion  which  is  transformation,  which 
turns  hate  to  love,  and  former  preference  to  abhor¬ 
rence — this  is  re-creation — as  truly  a  miracle  as  the 
first  creation.  This  is  God’s  everlasting  sign,  never 
cut  off,  whatever  other  signs  fail. 

The  Ethiopian  cannot  change  his  skin,  or  the  leop¬ 
ard  his  spots;  but  if  they  could,  the  one  would  still 
be.  an  Ethiopian  and  the  other  a  leopard.  Differ¬ 
ences  of  race,  genus,  species,  lie  deeper  down  than 

209 


210 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


the  colour  or  markings  of  skin.  But  for  Ethiopian  to 
become  Caucasian  or  American,  or  leopard  to  be¬ 
come  lamb,  means  a  miracle. 

In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  wonders  of  transform¬ 
ing  grace  constantly  confront  the  reader.  The  open¬ 
ing  miracle  of  Pentecost  was  a  new  creation  on  a 
grand  scale,  of  three  thousand  souls  in  one  day.  Such 
miracles  of  changed  character  as  these  pages  record  are 
meant  as  a  type  and  prophecy  of  things  to  come,  and 
hence  instances  enough  are  given  to  represent  all 
future  cases  and  classes  of  converts.  Pentecostal 
converts  may  stand  for  the  multitudes  that  at  one 
time  flock  like  doves  to  their  windows.  The  “  great 
company  of  priests  ”  who  became  obedient  to  the 
faith,  hint  the  gospel  triumphs  in  making  inroads 
upon  the  very  shrines  and  temples  of  false  gods,  and 
bearing  away  their  priests  as  trophies.  The  eunuch’s 
conversion  forecasts  thousands  who,  led  by  the  word 
of  God,  feel  after  God  and  need  some  man  to  guide 
them.  Saul  is  an  example  of  the  power  which  can 
turn  foe  into  friend,  and  persecutor  into  Apostle. 

Side  by  side  with  Saul’s  conversion  we  may  set 
that  of  the  Ephesian  magians  as  a  sign  of  divine 
power. 

Around  that  famous  fane  of  Diana,  which  was  one 
of  the  seven  world-wonders,  the  masters  of  curious 
arts  naturally  gathered.  Yet,  so  mightily  grew  the 
word  of  God  and  prevailed,  that  even  these  seers 
and  sorcerers  confessed  their  tricks  of  trade  and 
impostures  upon  popular  credulity,  and  crowned 
their  confession  by  burning  before  all  men,  the 
costly  books  which  contained  their  secrets,  and 
whose  market  value  was  a  fortune  for  those  days — 
fifty  thousand  pieces  of  silver ! 

With  Apostolic  days  we  associate  a  series  of  such 
marvels  of  convicting  and  converting  grace.  This 
brief  book  of  the  Acts  records  some  twelve  indi¬ 
vidual  cases,  and  no  two  alike:  The  cripple  at  the 
beautiful  gate,  the  eunuch  of  Ethiopia,  Saul  of 


THE  MIRACLE  OF  CONVERSION. 


211 


Tarsus,  the  centurion  of  Cesarea,  the  procon¬ 
sul  of  Cyprus,  Lydia  and  the  jailer  at  Philippi, 
Dionysius  and  Damaris  at  Athens,  Crispus  at 
Corinth,  and  possibly  Timothy  and  ^Eneas.  The 
ignorant  and  the  cultured,  Jews  and  gentiles,  men 
and  women,  those  in  high  life  and  in  low  life,  the 
best  and  the  worst,  yield  alike  to  the  gospel,  to 
show  that  the  message  is  adapted  to  reach  all 
classes. 

Furthermore,  the  emphasis  is  unmistakably  upon 
multitudes.  The  evident  intent  is  to  impress  upon 
the  reader  the  fact  that,  even  within  the  first  genera¬ 
tion,  the  world  proved  a  fertile  field  for  gospel  har¬ 
vests.  At  least  twenty  times  the  stress  is  put, 
though  not  unduly,  upon  the  large  numbers  of  con¬ 
verts.  At  Pentecost,  three  thousand;  soon  after, 
five  thousand;  a  little  later,  “multitudes  both  of 
men  and  women;”  again,  the  number  of  disciples 
was  multiplying;  and  again,  “was  multiplied  in 
Jerusalem,  greatly,  and  a  great  multitude  of  the 
priests  were  obedient  to  the  faith.”  In  Samaria 
multitudes  gave  heed  with  one  accord  to  Philip ;  all 
they  that  dwelt  at  Lydda  and  Sharon  turned  to  the 
Lord;  at  Joppa,  “many  believed  in  the  Lord”  at 
the  'raising  of  Dorcas;  at  Cesarea  “  all  who  heard  the 
word  ”  believed ;  “a  great  number”  at  Antioch  in 
Syria;  “many  Jews  and  proselytes  at  Antioch  in 
Pisidia;  at  Iconium  “a  great  multitude  both  of 
Jews  and  Greeks;”  “many  disciples”  at  Derbe;  at 
Thessalonica,  “a  great  multitude  of  devout  Greeks, 
and  not  a  few  of  chief  women;”  of  Bereans  “many 
believed;”  and  likewise  of  Corinthians,  as  also  of 
Ephesian  magians.  The  Lord  made  daily  additions 
to  believers,  so  that  James  at  Jerusalem  could  point 
to  “  many  thousands  ”  (myriads)  of  believing  Jews. 
Such  repetitions  have  meaning.  Converts  multi¬ 
plied  in  large  numbers;  large  households  with  ser¬ 
vants  or  retainers,  and  even  villages  and  wider  dis¬ 
tricts  yielded  to  the  gracious  sway  of  the  Spirit. 


212 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


The  power  of  the  truth  wielded  by  such  a  divine 
arm  is  massive — Jerusalem,  Samaria,  Joppa,  Lydda, 
Sharon,  Cesarea,  the  two  Antiochs,  Iconium  and 
Derbe,  Thessalonica  and  Berea,  Corinth  and  Ephesus 
feel  the  mighty  movings  of  grace. 

The  new  chapters  of  the  Acts  add  records  scarcely 
less  wonderful.  Individual  examples  quite  as 
marked,  as  varied,  as  significant,  abound,  to  prove 
converting  power,  and  in  every  field  multitudes 
have  at  times  been  gathered.  Of  this  we  shall  cite 
examples  and  proofs;  but  here  again  the  embarrass¬ 
ment  of  riches  compels  a  resort  to  the  principle  of 
selection.  First,  a  few  marked  individual  instances 
will  be  cited  from  countries,  communities  and  sur¬ 
roundings  widely  different ;  and  then  we  shall  glance 
over  broader  fields,  where  results  are  seen  in  the 
transformation  of  whole  communities. 

In  explaining  the  parable  of  the  sower  our  Lord 
prophesies  a  yield  of  thirty,  sixty,  an  hundredfold 
increase.  It  sometimes  seems  as  though  His  words 
had  already  been  fulfilled.  The  Pentecostal  gather¬ 
ing  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  had  added  to  them, 
that  same  day,  about  three  thousand  souls — a  thirty¬ 
fold  increase.  The  South  Sea  work,  from  i8y  to 
1839,  and  that  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  especially, 
probably  exceeded  any  previous  in-gathering  in  num¬ 
ber,  variety  and  rapidity  of  results;  and  this  may 
represent  sixtyfold  increase.  Half  a  century  later, 
the  greatest  single  harvest  of  Christian  history  was 
reaped  in  Southern  India,  and  may  well  stand  for  the 
hundredfold.  The  new  chapters  of  the  Acts  con¬ 
tinue  the  older  record,  and  chronicle  similar  marvels. 
Not  only  do  they  record  individual  conversions 
equally  remarkable,  but  they  tell  us  again  of  multi¬ 
tudes  turning  to  the  Lord. 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


Kayarnak — The  Converted  Eskimo. 

Missions  among  the  stolid,  stupid  Greenlanders 
seemed  for  long  years  as  hopeless  as  melting  the  ice¬ 
bergs  of  the  Frozen  Pole.  One  hundred  and  sixty 
years  ago,  Matthew  Stach  wrote  home:  uWe  have 
found  here  what  we  sought,  heathens  who  know  not 
God,  who  care  for  nothing  but  catching  seals,  fish 
and  reindeer,  and  for  this  purpose  are  constantly 
roving  about.* * 

The  Eskimo  religion  was  the  lowest  type  of 
paganism.  Without  temples  or  idols,  they  believed 
in  a  great  spirit,  Tongarsuk,  and  priests  or  wizards, 
his  Angekoks.  Fear  seemed  to  be  their  only  re¬ 
ligious  emotion,  and  their  superstitions  fostered  it. 
Christian  truth  had  apparently  no  power  to  impress 
them,  and  the  native  tongue  had  no  words  to  convey 
spiritual  ideas.  Not  one  missionary  in  a  hundred 
would  have  borne  what  Matthew  Stach  and  Frederick 
Boehnisch  and  the  heroic  John  Beck  who  had 
already  been  in  prison  for  the  Lord’s  sake,  bore 
from  those  natives.  The  Eskimos  shunned  them 
with  aversion,  blamed  them  for  the  scourge  of  small¬ 
pox  which  had  raged  for  nine  months  and  made  New 
Herrnhut  the  centre  of  a  desert,  and  they  adopted  a 
systematic  course  of  annoyance.  Whatever  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  said,  was  travestied  and  ridiculed;  what¬ 
ever  they  did,  was  caricatured  and  grotesquely 
mimicked.  In  the  midst  of  earnest  exhortations, 
they  feigned  sleep  and  snored;  or  they  would  feign 
pious  desire  to  hear  hymns  sung,  and  then  drown  the 
singing  with  howls  and  beating  of  drums.  But  farce 
and  comedy  were  not  sufficient — and  personal  insult 


214 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


and  violence  threatened  a  tragedy.  For  five  years 
they  sought  to  wear  out  the  patience  of  the  mission¬ 
aries  by  a  series  of  persecutions.  They  laid  siege  to 
their  huts,  broke  their  furniture,  stole  their  food  and 
manuscripts,  pelted  them  with  stones,  and  broke  their 
boat  which  was  their  last  hope  of  subsistence.  And 
when  starvation  was  threatening  these  noble  Mora¬ 
vians,  with  monstrous  ingratitude  and  cruelty  they 
would  not  even  sell  them  one  morsel  of  food,  though 
they  themselves  had  abundance. 

Seldom  has  mission  work  held  out  less  hope.  The 
Eskimos  were  repulsive  dwarfs,  with  minds  and 
hearts  even  worse  dwarfed  than  their  bodies.  Their 
looks  were  ugly,  their  habits  filthy.  Mothers  licked 
their  children  as  cats  do  their  kittens,  and  they  all 
wallowed  like  swine  in  the  mire  of  their  uncleanness. 
Hans  Egede  had  found  all  his  efforts  for  their  up¬ 
lifting  met  by  resistance,  doggedly  stubborn  and 
malicious.  They  invoked  the  aid  of  their  Angekoks 
to  destroy  him  with  their  wizard  arts,  and  when  these 
failed  they  thought  he  must  be  chief  of  wizards,  as 
his  Master  has  been  called  Prince  of  Demons.  But 
the  motto  of  these  brave  men  was,  “  Lose  thy  way, 
but  lose  not  thy  faith,”  and  they  held  on  to  God  and 
persevered  in  prayer. 

The  first  sign  that  God’s  summer  sun  was  melting 
these  icy  hearts  was  when  John  Beck’s  infant  daugh¬ 
ter  drew  their  eyes  to  the  beauty  of  Christian  home- 
life.  Once  more  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled:  “And  a 
little  child  shall  lead  them.”  Her  lisping  lips  some¬ 
how  softened  their  rudeness  and  warmed  their  cold¬ 
ness;  and  when  the  Eskimo  mothers  heard  her  sing¬ 
ing  holy  hymns,  they  yearned  to  hear  their  little 
ones  sing  like  her,  and  began  themselves  to  learn 
those  simple  gospel  songs  which  Beck  and  Boehnisch 
had  written  in  the  native  tongue. 

Then  in  1738,  as  Beck  was  in  his  humble  hut 
preparing  an  Eskimo  Bible,  a  company  of  Green¬ 
landers  from  the  South  came  in  and  watched  him  at 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


215 


his  work,  wondering  that  a  piece  of  paper  could  be 
made  to  hear,  remember,  and  repeat  the  words  of 
God.  He  read  to  them  from  his  manuscript  transla¬ 
tion  of  the  gospels,  and  once  more  the  story  of  the 
cross  broke  hard  hearts.  One  of  these  men,  Kayar- 
nak,  came  nearer  and  looking  up  into  Beck’s  face, 
said,  with  pathetic  earnestness,  “How  was  that? 
Tell  it  to  me  once  more;  for  I  too  want  to  be 
saved.” 

The  ice  was  breaking,  and  the  long  winter  was 
feeling  the  first  touch  of  spring.  Beck's  soul,  so 
tried  during  these  years  of  fruitless  toil,  could 
scarcely  believe  what  his  ears  heard.  There  was  at 
last  one  seeker  after  God.  His  joy  overflowed  in 
tears  and  in  speech;  again  and  more  fully  he  told 
the  tale  that  never  loses  its  charm.  And  when  his 
fellow-missionaries  returned  from  work  in  the  dis¬ 
tricts  round  about,  they  found  him  in  the  midst  of  a 
group  of  Greenlanders,  whose  open  ears  drank  in  his 
words,  while  their  hands  were  laid  on  their  mouths, 
to  express  amazement  at  the  strange  and  wonderful 
things,  never  before  heard. 

From  that  day  Kayamak  could  be  found  daily  at 
the  mission  hut,  with  cheeks  wet  with  tears,  with 
heart  opened  to  attend  unto  the  things  which  were 
spoken,  and  yearning  to  be  taught,  as  no  Green¬ 
lander  had  ever  been  known  to  yearn  before  him. 
He  clung  fondly  to  his  Moravian  teachers,  remaining 
with  some  twenty  companions,  through  the  winter, 
and  aiding  in  the  translation  of  the  gospels.  On 
Easter  morning,  1739,  in  presence  of  a  large  assem¬ 
bly  of  natives,  he,  with  his  wife  and  two  children, 
confessed  Christ  in  baptism.  And  so  the  first  fruits 
of  that  long-delayed  harvest-field  began  to  be 
gathered. 

The  return  of  spring  compelled  Kayarnak  to  start 
again  on  his  search  for  seals;  for  the  ocean  is  the 
field  which  the  Eskimo  cultivates.  His  boat’s  keel 
is  his  plough,  and  seals  and  fish  are  his  crop. 


216 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


With  no  little  fear  Beck  and  his  brethren  let  this  new 
convert  go  forth  to  his  work  with  heathen  compan¬ 
ions.  But  a  year  later  he  came  back,  not  only  hav¬ 
ing  fast  hold  upon  his  newly-found  Jesus,  but 
bringing  with  him  his  brother  and  his  family,  having 
been  so  long  absent  in  hope  to  gain  them  as  converts 
to  the  Lord. 

The  conversion  of  Kayarnak  we  have  thus  given 
in  detail,  because  it  marks  a  new  era  in  missions  to 
that  north  land.  Beholding  this  man  healed,  the 
opposers  of  the  gospel  could  say  nothing  against  it. 
The  miracle  wrought  in  his  changed  heart  and  life 
put  a  sudden  stop  to  the  mockery  that  had  made 
Stach’s  heart  burn  with  holy  indignation;  and  the 
spirit  of  earnest  inquiry,  which  flamed  in  Kayarnak*  s 
breast,  kindled  a  like  spirit  among  the  people. 
Instead  of  keeping  aloof,  or  coming  to  scoff  and 
jeer,  they  became  constant  and  reverent  hearers,  and 
learned  and  loved  the  sacred  songs  and  gospel  read¬ 
ings  which  Beck  had  written  for  them. 

The  whole  life  of  the  people  now  underwent  a 
change.  Brutal  cruelty  gave  place  to  considerate 
kindness;  past  ill-treatment  was  confessed,  and 
forgiveness  was  sought;  care  for  the  wants  and 
woes  of  others,  and  even  of  strangers,  took  the 
place  of  heartless  indifference.  For  instance,  if  the 
women  of  Greenland  hated  anything  it  was  suckling 
a  motherless  babe ;  yet  even  this  they  were  found 
doing  gladly,  so  sweetly  had  the  gospel  taught  them 
the  grace  of  unselfish  service  to  the  most  needy  and 
helpless.  If  their  language  had  no  word  for  grati¬ 
tude,  their  transformed  conduct  made  up  for  the  lack 
of  their  speech  by  its  own  peculiar  dialect;  and 
the  newly  converted  natives  found  some  words  to 
express  their  new  views  and  feelings  which  their  for¬ 
eign  teachers  had  long  sought  in  vain.  It  need  not 
be  said  that  the  charms  of  the  Angekoks  were  now 
broken  and  the  reign  of  superstition  was  at  an  end. 

Kayarnak,  the  learner,  became  also  the  teacher. 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


217 


He  taught  even  the  missionaries;  he  helped  them  so 
to  understand  the  language  as  to  correct  the  errors 
and  blunders  of  earlier  teaching  and  translating ;  and 
they  learned  from  him  a  still  more  valuable  lesson ; 
for  he  led  them  to  stop  trying  to  convince  unbeliev¬ 
ers  by  mere  argument,  and  to  trust  to  the  patient  and 
prayerful  presentation  of  the  mere  facts  of  redemp¬ 
tion  ;  to  depend  not  on  the  logic  that  appeals  to  the 
reason,  but  on  the  demonstration  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Kayamak  himself  was  permitted  only  to  lead  the 
way  in  this  new  era.  At  the  end  of  a  year  of  most 
exemplary  piety,  amidst  a  living  testimony,  that  in 
its  faith  and  fervour  and  rich  experience  was  apos¬ 
tolic,  he  fell  asleep;  but  the  work  went  on.  In  1747, 
twenty-five  years  after  Hans  Egede  had  landed  at 
Ball’s  River,  the  first  church  building  in  Greenland 
was  erected,  where  three  hundred  were  wont  to 
gather.  As  the  Moravian  Brethren  saw  the  church 
and  school  and  singing  class;  as  they  beheld  the 
very  land  itself  yielding  to  culture,  and  the  changed 
aspect  of  the  whole  country;  and  most  of  all  as  they 
saw  the  desert  of  human  hearts  turning  into  the  gar¬ 
den  of  the  Lord,  they  could  only  say,  “The  Lord 
hath  done  more  for  us  than  we  knew  how  to  pray 
for.  A  stream  of  life  is  now  poured  upon  this 
people.  As  we  speak  or  sing  of  the  sufferings  of 
Jesus  they  are  so  sensibly  affected  that  tears  of  love 
and  joy  roll  down  their  cheeks.  Though  they  may 
happen  to  be  from  four  to  six  leagues  away,  almost 
all  come  to  our  Sunday  service ;  and  candidates  for 
baptism  can  scarcely  wait  patiently  for  the  happy 
hour.” 

Other  missions  and  missionaries  followed,  and  prog¬ 
ress  was  in  geometrical  ratio,*  for  at  Lichtenfels 
four  years  saw  as  much  advance  as  fourteen  at  New 
Hermhut,  and  the  largest  of  the  congregations  was 
gathered  at  Lichtenau.  For  thirty  years  John  Beck 
was  spared  to  watch  the  seed  which  his  own  hand 
had  sown  ripening  into  harvests.  He  had  made  a 


218 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES. 


solemn  vow  to  follow  the  Lord  wholly  in  that  land 
of  ice  and  snow,  to  do  all  and  bear  all  as  unto  Him 
— and  sacredly  had  he  kept  his  covenant.  He  had 
asked  one  soul  saved,  as  the  seal  of  God’s  approval, 
and  that  prayer  was  answered  so  abundantly  that  all 
the  settlements  throughout  Greenland  are  now 
Christian,  and  it  is  now  forty-five  years  ago  since 
at  Proven  the  last  professed  pagan  died.  Kayarnak 
was  the  leader  of  a  host;  and  Beck’s  Bible  became 
the  base-block  on  which  was  built  a  new  Christian 
State.  Over  the  icy  castles  of  the  frozen  north  floats 
the  flag  of  the  cross,  and  again  the  prayer  and  pains 
of  the  missionary  have  their  recompense  of  reward ! 

Africaner — The  Hottentot  Terror. 

Africaner  was  known  as  the  “  Bonaparte  of  South 
Africa.”  This  notorious  Hottentot  chief  had  become 
the  terror  of  the  whole  country.  The  Boers  had  at 
some  time  wronged  or  offended  him,  and  in  revenge 
for  their  insult  or  injustice,  with  characteristic  rage, 
he  carried  on  a  constant,  cruel,  relentless  war  with 
the  natives  living  near  the  mouth  of  the  Orange 
River.  He  was  a  terrible  foe,  feared  by  everybody, 
deaf  to  remonstrance  and  appeal.  He  stole  cattle, 
he  burned  kraals,  he  took  captives  only  to  enslave 
those  whom  he  did  not  destroy. 

When  in  1817  Moffat  started  for  Africaner’s  kraal 
his  friends  warned  him  that  this  savage  monster 
would  make  a  drum-skin  of  his  hide  and  a  drinking, 
cup  of  his  skull.  But  the  noble  hero  of  Namaqua- 
land  was  not  to  be  dissuaded  even  by  the  tears  of 
the  motherly  dame  who  wept  for  the  danger  and 
death  into  which  he  was  rushing. 

Africaner  was  originally  a  Hottentot  in  the  ser¬ 
vice  of  a  Dutch  farmer  at  Tulbach,  near  Cape  Town. 
His  usual  work  was  the  care  of  cattle;  but  he  and 
his  sons  were  often  sent  on  raids  of  plunder  against 
unarmed  tribes  further  inland,  a  good  school  of  rob¬ 
bery  and  of  murder,  where  this  Hottentot  proved  a 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS . 


219 


quick  learner;  and  on  a  slight  provocation  he  shot  his 
employer  and  his  wife.  Then  Africaner  fled  as  an 
outlaw,  across  the  Orange  River,  keeping  near 
enough  to  harass  the  Boers,  but  far  enough  away  to 
be  safe  from  arrest  and  punishment.  From  this  time 
his  hand,  like  that  of  Ishmael,  was  against  every 
man.  It  mattered  little  whether  white  or  black, 
native  or  foreigner,  Namaqua,  Hottentot,  or  Boer; 
whoever  crossed  his  track  he  hunted  down  like  a 
wild  beast,  and  fire  and  sword  were  his  merciless 
weapons.  The  authorities  of  the  colony  would  have 
paid  any  reasonable  price  for  his  head ;  but  where  was 
the  man  daring  enough  to  attempt  to  capture  or  kill 
such  a  monster?  It  was  like  fighting  a  dragon.  He 
might  tolerate  missionaries,  but  they  could  not  hope 
to  change  him,  and  gave  it  up  in  despair. 

Robert  Moffat  won  this  hard-hearted  monster, 
and  it  was  by  the  same  old  gospel  that  has  broken 
so  many  other  hearts  of  stone  and  melted  so  many 
other  hearts  of  steel.  Into  the  very  soul  of  Africaner 
this  truth  of  God  entered,  and  until  the  day  of  his 
death  there  was  no  break  in  the  harmony  of  this 
strange  friendship.  During  Moffat’s  sickness,  it 
was  Africaner  whose  hands  ministered  to  his  needs, 
furnished  his  food  and  the  best  of  milk.  And  when 
Moffat  found  it  needful  to  go  to  Cape  Town,  although 
there  was  still  a  premium  upon  his  head,  Africaner 
went  with  him.  That  whole  journey  is  one  of  the 
romances  of  history.  When  the  missionary  stopped 
on  his  way  at  the  house  of  a  farmer  who  had  been 
his  host  as  he  journeyed  to  Namaqualand,  he  had  no 
little  difficulty  in  convincing  him  that  he  was  Moffat, 
for  the  man  had  heard  that  the  Hottentot  chief  had 
murdered  him,  and  knew  a  man  who  had  “seen  his 
bones.”  But  when  he  saw  Africaner,  who  had  killed 
his  uncle,  and  witnessed  the  change  in  his  whole 
character  and  demeanour,  the  farmer  could  only  ex¬ 
claim,  “O  God,  what  cannot  Thy  grace  do!  What 
a  miracle  of  Thy  power!  ” 


220 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES. 


The  sensation  produced  by  Africaner’s  appearance 
at  Cape  Town  defies  description.  Here  was  an  out¬ 
law,  a  robber,  a  murderer,  for  whose  capture  such 
large  rewards  had  been  vainly  offered,  himself 
coming  back,  risking  arrest,  trusting  himself  among 

them,  a  changed  man.  The  lion  had  become  a  lamb. 
The  governor  sent  for  him,  and  the  reward  offered 
for  the  seizure  of  the  outlaw  was  actually  spent  in 
gifts  for  himself  and  presents  for  his  people.  As 
Moffat  found  it  vain  to  attempt  further  work  in 
Namaqualand,  Africaner  went  with  him  to  the 
Bechuanas.  He  first  moved  Moffat’s  goods  and 
cattle  and  sheep  to  his  new  home  at  Lattakoo,  and 

then,  having  faithfully  fulfilled  his  trust,  went  back 
for  his  own  movables,  that  he  might  settle  beside  his 
beloved  teacher.  But  his  end  was  near,  and  he  died 
shortly  after  at  his  old  kraal. 

Kapiolani — The  Hawaiian  Female  Chief. 

Kapiolani,  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  was  the  most 
noted  among  female  chiefs,  and  had  large  landed 
possessions.  When  first  seen  by  the  missionaries  she 
was  seated  on  a  rock  oiling  her  person,  and  was 
found  to  be  dark-minded,  superstitious,  intemperate, 
repulsive.  Yet,  when  the  gospel  touched  her  heart, 
this  degraded  daughter  of  heathen  kings  was  found 
attending  the  place  of  prayer,  becomingly  dressed, 
dignified  in  deportment,  devout  and  meek,  but 
resolute  and  courageous.  She  received  the  messen¬ 
gers  of  the  Lord  at  her  house  with  the  courteous 
cordiality  of  Lydia,  and  with  them  planned  for  the 
improvement  of  her  own  people  in  condition  and 
character  with  the  ardour  and  candour  of  Catherine 
of  Sienna.  Like  Catherine,  she  was  inspired  with 
the  heroism  of  a  reformer.  From  the  sanctuary  of 
Keave,  the  sacred  house  of  deposit,  she  bore  away  the 
royal  relics  which  were  worshipped  with  divine 
honours,  and  hid  them  in  inaccessible  caves  near  the 


( 


NEW  CONTEXTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


221 


head  of  the  bay  in  the  side  of  a  precipitous  rock. 
When  Charles  S.  Stewart,  chaplain  of  the  United 
States  ship  of  war,  ‘‘Vincennes,”  was  leaving  Kaa- 
waloa  at  midnight,  she  insisted  on  going  with 
him  to  the  shore,  that  with  warm  hand-shake  and 
many  tears,  she  might  accompany  him  to  the  ship,  as 
Ephesian  elders  did  with  Paul.  This  heroic  woman, 
with  her  husband,  strove  to  uproot  the  most  tena¬ 
cious  idolatrous  notions  and  customs.  Without 
counting  costs  to  herself,  she  put  down  murder  and 
infanticide,  theft  and  Sabbath-breaking,  lust  and 
drunkenness,  and  sought  to  reform  morals  and  re¬ 
ligion.  And  when,  in  1841,  she  died,  had  no  other 
gem  for  the  crown  of  the  great  Conqueror  been  dug 
up  on  Hawaiian  soil,  this  woman’s  conversion  suf¬ 
ficed  to  prove  that  the  gospel  is,  as  truly  as  in  Apos¬ 
tolic  days,  God’s  power  unto  salvation. 

One  act  of  her  life  will  ever  stand  out  in  conspicu¬ 
ous  pre-eminence.  She  knew  that  the  famous  crater 
of  Kilauea  was  believed  by  the  people  to  be  the 
residence  of  the  awful  goddess,  Pele.  The  super¬ 
stitious  hold  of  this  goddess  upon  the  people  must 
be  broken.  And  she  determined  to  lay  hold  upon 
the  very  pillars  of  this  temple  of  the  Hawaiian  Dagon 
and  bring  down  this  superstition  into  ruin.  In  1825 
she  made  a  journey  of  a  hundred  miles  to  this  volcanic 
crater,  and  there  openly  defied  this  false  deity,  at  her 
throne  and  shrine.  She  not  only  refused  to  offer  even 
the  sacred  bean  as  a  propitiatory  offering  or  in  any 
way  avert  or  appease  the  wrath  and  power  of  Pele, 
but  she  made  the  crater  ring  with  the  praises  of  Jeho¬ 
vah,  as  she  sang  hymns  to  the  only  true  God.  She  had 
made  the  journey  on  foot  with  numerous  attendants, 
who  were  awe-struck  at  the  open  indignity  with 
which  she  defied  the  dreaded  goddess.  And  those  who 
know  with  what  awful  terrors  such  pagan  deities 
are  clothed  in  the  common  mind,  and  with  what 
tenacity  these  superstitions  continue  to  hold  even 
professed  converts,  can  imagine  what  holy  courage 


222 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


faith  must  have  begotten  in  this  Hawaiian  heroine. 
It  was  eleven  hundred  years  before  her  (723),  when 
Boniface  at  Geismar  in  Upper  Hesse,  boldly,  with 
axe  in  hand,  hewed  down  the  gigantic  and  venerable 
oak  sacred  to  Thor,  the  Thunderer,  defying  the  super¬ 
stitions  which  held  the  people  in  bondage,  and  the 
idolatrous  associations  of  centuries;  and,  as  blow 
after  blow  fell,  the  pagans  looked  to  see  the  bolt  of 
the  avenger  smite  the  profaner  of  his  sacred  grove 
dead.  That  was  a  heroic  deed,  but  Boniface  had  never 
been  under  the  thrall  of  this  idolatry,  and  had  no 
superstitions  of  his  own  to  fight.  But  this  woman 
was  herself  only  just  delivered  from  the  chains  of 
lifelong  idolatry,  and  had  no  band  of  clergy  around 
her  to  encourage  and  share  her  act  of  open  profa¬ 
nation. 


Kho-thah-byu — The  Karen  Evangelist. 

One  man  is  selected  out  of  the  Karens,  or  wild 
men  of  Burma,  as  an  example  of  the  transforming 
power  of  the  gospel,  mainly  because  he  was  the  first 
convert  among  his  people.  He  was  a  poor  man  and 
a  slave,  and  one  of  the  degraded  people  of  a  debased 
nation,  a  man  of  very  ordinary  abilities,  and  yet  most 
useful  and  uninterrupted  in  his  labours.  The  first 
of  his  nation  to  be  baptized,  he  lived  to  draw  hun¬ 
dreds  and  thousands  to  follow  his  own  steps.  He  is 
a  singular  example  of  what  ordinary  faculties  will 
accomplish  when  wholly  consecrated.  He  aroused 
the  whole  nation  to  Christianity.  Born  in  1778,  and 
baptized  in  1828,  he  was  fifty  years  old  when  he  took 
up  the  cross.  Until  he  was  fifteen,  he  was  at  home, 
but  wicked,  wilful,  ungovernable.  After  he  left 
his  parents  he  became  a  robber  and  a  murderer ;  and 
was,  no  doubt,  at  least  accessory  to  no  less  than 
thirty  murders.  His  natural  temper  was  vicious. 

After  the  Burmese  war  he  went  to  Rangoon,  and 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


223 


got  into  Mr.  Hough’s  service,  by  whom  the  first 
religious  impressions  were  made  upon  his  mind.  He 
followed  Adoniram  Judson  to  Amhurst,  and  was 
taken  into  the  family  of  Ko-shway-bay,  who,  having 
paid  for  him  a  debt,  took  him  into  his  family  as  a 
servant,  according  to  Burmese  law  which  makes  the 
debtor  slave  to  the  creditor.  His  master,  who  was 
also  an  inquirer,  became  discouraged  with  regard  to 
doing  him  any  good,  and  could  not  retain  him  in  the 
family  on  account  of  his  immoral  character.  He 
was,  however,  transferred  to  the  family  of  the  Rev. 
Francis  Mason,  and  soon  after  began  to  pay  atten¬ 
tion  to  religious  things,  though  he  had  fits  of  violent 
temper.  Soon  signs  of  repentance  appeared,  and 
faith  in  Jesus.  His  dark  mind  slowly  took  hold  of 
the  truths  of  Christianity,  and  his  violent  temper 
often  caused  him  great  discouragement  and  depres¬ 
sion,  and  deferred  his  baptism.  He  was,  however, 
baptized  on  the  16th  May,  1828,  as  we  have  said,  at 
fifty  years  of  age.  He  had  already  studied  with 
great  diligence,  in  order  to  read  the  Burman  Bible, 
and  became  immediately  very  zealous  to  bear  witness 
to  the  Saviour  whom  he  had  found.  Immediately 
after  his  baptism,  accompanied  by  two  of  his  coun¬ 
trymen,  he  left  Tavoy  to  visit  the  Karens  in  the  val¬ 
ley  of  Tenasserim,  preaching  and  explaining  the 
catechism,  and  with  immediate  results  in  the  con¬ 
version  of  other  Karens,  Moung  Khway  being  the 
first. 

Nearly  a  whole  village  ultimately  became  Christian 
through  the  influences  started  by  this  converted 
Karen.  From  this  time,  so  long  as  his  strength 
allowed,  he  was  accustomed  to  make  tours  among 
his  brethren,  from  which  he  would  return  with  con¬ 
verts  prepared  for  baptism,  the  numbers  running 
all  the  way  up  from  six  to  one  hundred  and  fifty. 
He  obtained  the  ears  of  the  people  of  whole  vil¬ 
lages,  and  remarkable  changes  took  place  under 
his  ministry.  He  was  unwearied  in  labour,  would 


224 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


often  talk  of  the  gospel  till  near  midnight,  and 
absolutely  spared  not  himself.  His  preaching  car¬ 
ried  with  it  conviction,  and  compelled  others  to  say, 

‘  ‘  Truly  this  is  the  word  of  God.  ”  After  Mr.  Boardman 
had  preached  in  Burman  he  would  interpret  as  much 
of  the  discourse  as  he  could  remember  into  Karen. 
Though  a  naturally  weak  man  he  became  magnani¬ 
mous,  because  the  Spirit  of  Christ  and  the  love  of 
souls  inspired  him.  His  wife  was  likewise  baptized  in 
1828.  She  had  formerly  been  very  ignorant  and 
very  wicked,  but  the  influence  of  her  husband  had 
been  blessed  to  her  entire  transformation.  His 
tours  lasted  from  a  week  to  six  months,  spent  in  itin¬ 
erating  with  perpetual  labour,  day  and  night.  Most 
amazing  results  often  followed  his  ministry.  For  in¬ 
stance,  when  the  mother  of  the  baptized  Karen  head¬ 
man  died,  in  fear  that  other  relatives  of  the  deceased 
would  wish  to  perform  heathenish  customs  in  con¬ 
nection  with  her  burial,  he  proposed  to  erect  a 
preaching  zayat  near  the  grave,  and  invited  Kho- 
thah-byu  to  hold  forth  the  word  of  life  there.  At  one 
time  this  Karen  evangelist  projected  a  journey  into 
Siam,  and  actually  started  to  visit  the  Karens  in 
that  country,  but  was  not  suffered  to  cross  the  bor¬ 
der,  and  was  compelled  to  return. 

After  Mr.  Boardman  became  unable  to  labour,  the 
whole  care  of  the  church  and  the  instruction  of  the 
inquirers  devolved  on  this  simple-minded  convert. 
He  taught  school  and  showed  diligence  in  every 
department  of  labour.  His  pupils  could  repeat  ver¬ 
batim  whole  Burman  tracts.  His  boldness  in  attack¬ 
ing  idolatry  was  remarkable.  The  town  of  Shen 
Mouktee  is  famous  for  the  idol  which  it  contains, 
which  was  said  to  have  grown  miraculously  from  a 
little  brass  image  of  a  few  inches  high,  to  the  full  size 
of  a  man.  It  was  as  sacred  to  the  Burmans  as  Diana 
was  to  the  Ephesians.  When  this  old  man  had  been 
left  to  rest  in  one  of  the  zayats  he  was  found  sur¬ 
rounded  by  a  large  congregation  of  Burmans,  and, 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


225 


holding  them  under  a  peculiar  fascination,  that  was 
compared  to  the  influence  of  a  serpent  over  a  brood  of 
chickens.  And  the  first  words  that  were  heard  by 
Dr.  Mason  as  he  approached,  were,  “  Your  God  was  a 
black  kula;”  that  is,  a  foreigner.  The  peculiar  look 
which  accompanied  these  words  could  never  be  for¬ 
gotten  by  the  beholder.  If  ever  a  man  hated  idolatry, 
that  man  was  Kho-thah-byu.  No  fatigue,  no  obstacles, 
could  prevent  his  seeking  out  his  fellow-countrymen, 
and  when  he  could  not  reach  the  Karens  he  would 
attack  the  Burmans  and  their  idolatry  with  unmerci¬ 
ful  energy,  utterly  heedless  of  their  ridicule.  His 
ruling  passion  was  for  preaching,  and  once,  when  he 
was  in  danger  of  losing  his  life  by  drowning,  his  only 
solicitude  was  lest  he  might  never  more  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  Karens.  He  was  not  only  a  man  of 
very  ordinary  abilities,  but  he  was  actually,  in  some 
things,  ignorant  to  the  verge  of  stupidity.  His  own 
pupils  outran  their  teacher  in  their  attainments. 
His  adaptation  was  for  a  pioneer,  and  God  permitted 
him  to  become,  in  succession,  the  first  Karen  preacher 
to  his  countrymen  in  the  districts  of  Tavoy,  Maul- 
main,  Rangoon  and  Aracan.  The  son  born  to  him 
in  Tavoy  he  named  Joseph,  the  first  Christian  name 
ever  conferred  by  native  Karens;  and  his  great 
desire  was  that  that  son  might  live  to  become  a 
preacher  to  his  people. 

In  his  tours  he  sometimes  had  to  wade  streams  to 
his  armpits,  and  sometimes  through  mud  and  water 
where  the  rain  filled  the  hollows;  yet  nothing  could 
discourage  or  dismay  him.  He  was  one  among  a 
thousand.  Sometimes  the  Karens  thronged  his 
house  so  that  there  was  danger  of  breaking  it  down, 
and  their  importunity  left  him  no  chance  for  needed 
physical  rest,  and  scarcely  for  food.  He  was  chief 
of  all  the  native  Karen  assistants  employed  in  the 
carrying  forward  of  the  mission.  When  his  days  of 
itinerating  were  past  by  reason  of  rheumatism  and 
blindness,  it  was  to  him  the  greatest  of  all  his  afflic- 


226 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


tions  that  he  was  unable  to  carry  on  active  work: 
and  when  at  Sandoway  the  summons  came  for  him 
to  cease  from  his  labours,  on  the  9th  of  Septem¬ 
ber,  1840,  at  sixty-two  years  of  age,  he  departed 
without  an  anxious  thought  as  to  his  future  state. 
The  blue  mountains  of  Pegu,  often  the  first  land 
seen  in  India  by  the  approaching  mariner,  remain  his 
monument;  and  the  Christian  villages  that  adorn 
their  sides  constitute  his  epitaph.  If  he  hated  idola¬ 
try,  he  loved  the  gospel  with  equal  intensity;  always 
planning  some  new  excursion,  never  so  happy  as  to 
find  hearers  for  his  message.  The  leading  truths  of 
the  Bible  became  familiar  as  his  alphabet,  and  he 
sought  in  every  sermon  to  bring  into  prominence  the 
vicarious  death  of  Christ.  Among  his  converts  there 
was  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  justification  by 
faith  than  can  be  found  among  an  equal  number 
even  in  Christian  countries. 

While  it  is  true  that  his  work  was  a  pioneer  work, 
breaking  up  the  fallow  ground  and  casting  in  the 
seed,  yet  few  who  have  devoted  their  entire  lives  to 
such  labours  have  been  the  instruments  of  gathering 
as  many  converts  to  Christ.  He  idolized  his  work.  It 
was  the  only  business  to  which  he  attached  the  least 
importance ;  and  it  was  this  which  constituted  the 
charm  of  his  life.  His  absorption  in  preaching  made 
him  quite  insensible  to  external  objects,  and  he  has 
been  known  in  preaching  to  be  forsaken  by  every 
individual  soon  after  the  commencement  of  his  re¬ 
marks,  and  yet  continue  with  such  interest  as  though 
he  were  preaching  to  listening  thousands;  and  when, 
at  the  close  of  his  discourse  he  found  himself  alone, 
without  discouragement  he  would,  with  renewed  zeal 
and  ardour,  enter  upon  his  work  with  the  very  next 
individuals  he  met.  He  was  utterly  unceremonious 
in  introducing  religious  themes,  regarding  no  time 
or  place  unsuitable,  and  though  his  mental  resources 
,  were  limited  they  were  well  directed.  He  concen¬ 
trated  all  his  powers  upon  his  work.  His  success 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MAE  EYES. 


227 


can  be  accounted  for  by  just  four  words,  “  God  was 
with  him.”  He  was  a  man  of  prayer.  It  was  his 
practice  to  read  and  pray  aloud.  He  has  been 
known  to  spend  all  days  and,  like  his  Master,  whole 
nights  in  this  way;  and,  however  ignorant  upon 
other  subjects,  the  moment  he  touched  his  favourite 
theme  he  surprised  all  his  hearers.  His  baptism  in 
1828  was  the  commencement  of  the  mission,  which  in 
success  exceeds  perhaps  any  other,  except  that  to  the 
Hawaiian  Islands.  He  was  never  ordained,  because 
he  lacked  a  well  regulated  mind,  and  to  the  last  was 
liable  to  outbreaks  of  evil  temper,  which  caused  him 
great  sorrow  and  humiliation. 

When  the  year  1878  completed  the  centenary  of 
his  birth,  and  the  semi-centennial  of  his  conversion, 
a  large  new  institute  building  was  dedicated  to  the 
service  of  God  and  Christian  education,  under  the 
name  of  the  Kho-thah-byu  Memorial  Hall.  That  is 
the  true  monument  of  his  twelve  years  of  earnest  and 
successful  labour.  It  cost  nearly  50,000  rupees,  and 
was  the  result  of  ten  years  of  gathered  contribu¬ 
tions  among  the  Karens  of  Bassein.  It  was  dedi¬ 
cated  without  debt  in  the  month  of  May.  It  stands 
on  a  fine  knoll  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  and  is 
visible  for  a  long  distance  from  the  north  and  west. 
Its  entire  length  on  the  south  front  is  134  feet.  The 
east  front  and  wing  measure  13 1  feet,  the  west  side 
with  the  wing  104  feet.  The  tower  is  sixty  feet 
high,  surmounted  by  a  Greek  cross,  and  on  the  wall 
of  the  south  verandah,  in  carved,  gilded,  Burmese 
characters,  we  read  this  inscription : 

“  1828 — Kho-thah-byu — 1878.  ” 


Ranavalona  II. — Madagascar’s  Queen. 

When  Robert  Drury  gave  the  first  full  account  of 
the  savages  of  this  great  island,  it  was  under  the 
despotism  of  wickedness,  and  might  was  the  only 


228 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


right.  Idolatry  of  the  most  degraded  kind  existed, 
and  the  island  was  the  scene  of  perpetual  war,  lust, 
slavery  and  superstition.  Thousands  of  natives  were 
sold  every  year,  and  the  spot  where  they  caught  the 
last  glimpse  of  home,  as  they  went  into  hopeless 
exile,  even  yet  bears  the  pathetic  name,  “  The  weeping- 
place  of  the  Hovas.”  Vices  were  treated  as  virtues. 
Punishments  were  savagely  contrived  to  inflict  long 
torture.  The  people  were  a  nation  of  thieves  and 
liars.  There  were  no  homes.  A  native  never  spoke 
of  family  or  family  ties.  The  pen  refuses  to  record 
what  was  there  seen  and  heard.  It  should  be  written 
in  blood  and  registered  in  hell.  Female  virtue  was 
of  so  little  account  that  it  did  not  even  affect  the 
legitimacy  of  offspring.  Idols  so  filled  the  land  that 
anything  which  was  not  comprehended,  though  it 
were  but  a  machine  or  a  photograph,  was  deified. 
The  French  governor  of  the  Isle  of  Bourbon  told  the 
first  missionaries  that  they  might  as  well  attempt  to 
convert  sheep,  oxen  or  asses. 

Madagascar  has  unenviable  celebrity  as  the 
scene  of  a  persecution  which  might  have  brought 
a  blush  even  to  the  cheek  of  Nero.  When  Rana- 
valona  I.  mounted  the  throne,  murdering  all  riv¬ 
als, — the  “bloody  Mary”  of  Madagascar,  treach¬ 
erous  as  Judas,  selfish  as  Cleopatra, — from  twenty  to 
thirty  thousand  victims  fell  annually  a  prey  to  her 
cruelty.  Her  chief  amusement  was  a  bull  fight,  and 
it  was  said  that  half  of  the  population  perished  under 
her  bloody  sceptre.  At  her  coronation  she  took  two 
of  the  national  idols  in  her  hands,  and  said,  ‘  ‘  From 
my  ancestors  I  received  you.  In  you  I  put  my  trust, 
therefore  support  me.”  And  those  idols,  in  robes  of 
scarlet  and  gold,  were  held  at  the  front  of  the  plat¬ 
form  to  overawe  the  multitude. 

We  pass  over  an  interval  of  years.  In  1868, 
thirty-nine  years  after  the  coronation  of  Ranavalona 
I.,  and  seven  years  after  her  death,  Ranavalona  II.  was 
crowned.  For  the  first  time,  Madagascar  had  a 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS 


229 


Christian,  as  well  as  a  constitutional,  ruler.  lie  who 
would  see  the  marvellous  transformation  in  this  island 
need  only  contrast  the  coronation  of  these  two 
queens,  one  on  the  12th  of  June,  1829,  and  the  other 
on  the  3rd  of  September,  1868.  At  this  latter  cere¬ 
mony,  the  symbols  of  pagan  faith  were  nowhere  to 
be  seen.  In  their  place  lay  a  beautitul  copy  of  the 
Bible,  side  by  side  with  the  laws  of  Madagascar. 
Over  the  queen  was  stretched  a  canopy,  on  whose 
four  sides  were  as  many  Scripture  mottoes:  “  Glory 
to  God,”  “  Peace  on  Earth,”  “Good-will  to  Men,” 
“  God  with  Us.”  Her  inaugural  address  was  inter¬ 
woven  with  the  dialect  of  Scripture,  and  now  it  was 
idolatry  and  not  Christianity  that  became  a  suppliant 
for  toleration ; — and  all  this,  seven  years  after  the  death 
of  the  bloody  Mary,  whose  thirty- two  years  had  been  a 
reign  of  terror !  Astrologers  and  diviners  were  no 
longer  to  be  found  at  court ;  Rasoherina’s  sacred  idol 
was  cast  out  of  the  palace ;  government  work  ceased 
on  Sunday;  Sunday  markets  were  closed,  divine  wor¬ 
ship  held  in  the  court.  The  Madagascar  New  Year 
was  changed  from  an  idolatrous  festival  to  a  Christian 
holiday,  and  the  queen’s  address  declared,  “I  have 
brought  my  kingdom  to  lean  upon  God,  and  expect 
you,  one  and  all,  to  be  wise  and  just,  and  to  walk  in 
His  ways.”  One  month  later  this  Christian  queen 
and  her  prime  minister  were  publicly  baptized  by  a 
native  preacher,  in  the  very  courtyard  where  the 
bloodiest  edicts  had  been  promulgated. 

When  the  queen  was  examined  by  native  minis¬ 
ters,  previous  to  baptism,  it  was  found  that  her  first 
serious  impressions  were  traceable  to  a  native  Chris¬ 
tian.  One  of  the  four  noble  men  afterward  burned 
as  martyrs  had  thus  sown  the  seed  in  her  own  heart. 
Two  days  before  their  baptism,  the  queen  and  her 
prime  minister  were  married,  and  shortly  after  pub¬ 
licly  joined  in  the  Lord’s  Supper.  Her  example  was 
likely  to  be  followed  by  government  officers  of  high 
rank;  and  even  the  chief  idol  keeper,  the  astrologer 


230 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


of  Rasoherina,  applied  for  baptism.  The  congrega¬ 
tions  multiplied  beyond  all  means  of  accommodation. 
A  hundred  new  buildings  were  in  demand.  There 
was  an  increase  of  sixteen  thousand  worshippers  in  a 
year,  and  the  royal  chapel  was  erected  in  the  very 
courtyard  of  the  palace,  where  to-day  that  beautiful 
house  of  prayer  may  yet  be  seen.  In  gilded  letters 
upon  two  large  stone  tablets  forming  part  of  the  sur- 
base  of  the  structure,  appears  engraven  the  follow¬ 
ing  royal  statement,  read  at  the  laying  of  the  corner¬ 
stone  in  1869: 

“  By  the  power  of  God  and  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus,  I,  Ranavalomanjaka,  Queen  of  Madagascar, 
founded  the  House  of  Prayer,  on  the  thirteenth 
Adimizana,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
1869,  as  a  house  of  prayer  for  the  service  of  God, 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  according  to  the 
word  in  sacred  Scriptures,  by  Jesus  Christ  the  Lord 
who  died  for  the  sons  of  all  men,  and  rose  again  for 
the  justification  and  salvation  of  all  who  believe  in, 
and  love  Him. 

“  For  these  reasons  this  stone  house,  founded  by  me 
as  a  house  of  prayer,  cannot  be  destroyed  by  any  one, 
whoever  may  be  king  of  this  my  land,  forever  and 
forever;  but  if  he  shall  destroy  this  house  of  prayer 
to  God  which  I  have  founded,  then  is  he  not  king  of 
my  land  Madagascar.  Wherefore  I  have  signed  my 
name  with  my  hand  and  the  seal  of  the  kingdom. 

“  Ranavalomanjaka,  Queen  of  Madagascar.” 

Maskepetoom — The  Indian  Chief. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Run  die,  of  the  English"  Wesleyan 
Missionary  Society,  was  the  pioneer,  who,  at  great 
personal  risk,  visited  the  Cree  tribes  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  that  he  might  bear  to  them  the 
message  of  salvation.  These  tribes  were,  perhaps, 
the  most  numerous  and  powerful  among  the  Indians 
that  roamed  over  the  vast  regions  of  the  Canadian 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


231 


northwest,  before  the  scourge  of  epidemic  disease 
had  mowed  them  down  by  thousands. 

We  put  on  record  here  the  simple  story  of  the 
most  powerful  chief  among  those  tribes,  known  as 
Maskepetoom,  or  the  crooked  arm,  from  the  fact 
that  one  arm  had  been  so  hacked  and  wounded  in 
close  conflict  with  his  ferocious  neighbours,  the 
Black  Feet  Indians,  that,  in  healing,  the  muscles 
had  contracted  and  stiffened,  and  permanently 
crooked  the  arm.  This  chief  was  a  born  warrior. 
His  special  delight  was  found  in  the  excitement  of 
Indian  conflict,  in  cunning  ambuscades,  and  strategic 
movements.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  practice  those 
barbarities  and  cruelties  upon  the  captives  of  other 
tribes  that  have  given  to  the  Indians  a  character  as 
specially  vindictive  and  inhuman. 

The  Rev.  James  Evans,  in  his  marvellous  trips 
through  the  magnificent  distances  of  this  northwest, 
visited  and  faithfully  preached  the  gospel  to  Maske¬ 
petoom  and  his  warriors;  and,  although  some  ac¬ 
cepted  the  gospel,  and  became  Christian  believers, 
the  warlike  chief  himself  was  found  impervious  to 
the  message  of  peace.  Some  years  later,  the  Rev. 
George  Macdougal,  at  one  of  the  camp-fire  services, 
read  as  his  Scripture  lesson  the  story  of  Christ’s  trial 
and  crucifixion,  and  came  to  the  prayer  which  the 
Saviour  offered  for  his  murderers:  “Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.”  He  stopped 
to  dwell  especially  upon  this  prayer,  for  the  Indian 
spirit  feeds  upon  retaliation.  If  there  be  any  attribute 
of  the  Indian  character  that  has  become  historically 
and  proverbially  conspicuous,  not  only  prominent  but 
overtopping  all  others,  it  is  the  disposition  to  revenge 
real  or  imaginary  injuries  upon  the  perpetrators  of 
them.  And,  having  in  mind  the  fact  that  this  quality 
was  so  regnant  in  the  hearts  of  his  Indian  hearers,  he 
attacked  the  evil  stronghold,  and  plainly  told  them 
the  conditions  of  divine  forgiveness:  “If  we  forgive 
not  men  their  trespasses,  neither  will  our  heavenly 


232 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Father  forgive  our  trespasses;”  that  if  they  really 
expected  forgiveness  from  the  Great  Spirit,  they 
must  be  able  to  pray  such  a  prayer  as  Christ  offered 
on  the  cross.  The  dark-eyed  warrior  listened  with 
profound  attention,  and  was  deeply  moved,  but 
nothing  more  was  said  to  him  that  evening. 

The  next  day,  as  the  great  company  led  by  him, 
and  composed  of  many  hundred  Indians,  was  riding 
along  over  the  beautiful  prairie,  a  subordinate  chief 
rode  quickly  to  the  side  of  Mr.  Macdougal,  the  mis¬ 
sionary,  begging  him,  in  an  excited  manner,  to  fall 
back  into  the  rear,  lest  he  should  be  compelled  to 
witness  the  horrible  torture  and  violent  death  of  a 
man  who  was  approaching  them  in  a  little  band  of 
Indians,  seen  in  the  distance,  although  so  far  off  as 
scarcely  to  be  distinguishable  to  a  white  man's  vision. 

The  warning  of  this  chief  was  occasioned  by  the 
fact  that,  months  before  this,  Maskepetoom  had  sent 
his  only  son  across  a  mountain  range,  or  pass,  to 
bring  a  herd  of  horses  home.  Among  the  foot-hills 
of  these  massive  mountains  are  many  fertile  valleys 
where  there  is  grazing  all  the  year  round,  and  in  one 
of  these  the  great  chieftain  had  kept  his  reserve  of 
horses.  One  of  his  warriors  was  selected  as  the 
comrade  of  his  son,  to  aid  him  in  his  work.  It 
transpired  that  this  man,  having  a  chance  to  sell  these 
horses,  was  so  excited  by  the  bait  offered  to  his 
cupidity,  that  he  actually  murdered  the  son  of  the 
chief,  disposed  of  the  herd,  and  for  a  time  conceal¬ 
ing  his  booty,  returned  to  the  tribe,  telling  a  plausi¬ 
ble  story  that  in  one  of  the  dangerous  passes  in  the 
mountains  the  young  chief  had  lost  his  foothold  and 
been  dashed  to  pieces  over  an  awful  precipice,  so 
that  he,  being  left  alone  to  manage  the  herd  of 
horses,  had  been  compelled  to  see  them  scattering 
wildly  over  the  plain.  As  nothing  was  at  the  time 
known  to  the  contrary,  Maskepetoom  and  his  follow¬ 
ers  were  compelled  to  accept  this  improbable  story; 
but  it  subsequently  transpired  that,  unknown  to  the 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


233 


murderer,  the  tragedy  had  witnesses;  so  that  for 
months  a  horrible  vengeance  had  been  preparing 
when  the  offender  should  come  within  the  control  of 
the  exasperated  chief.  And  now  the  awful  day  had 
come  when  the  vengeance  might  find  opportunity  of 
execution,  and  the  bereaved  father  was  actually 
approaching  the  band,  among  whom  was  the  mur¬ 
derer  of  his  only  son.  As  he  advanced  the  very 
warriors  held  their  breath.  He  quickened  the  speed 
of  his  horse,  and  rode  on  in  advance.  Mr.  Macdougal, 
anxious,  if  possible,  to  prevent  the  execution  of  such 
dire  revenge,  spurred  his  horse  forward,  and  rode 
up  just  in  the  rear  of  the  mighty  chieftain,  uplifting 
his  prayer  to  God  that  the  wrath  of  man  might  at 
least  be  restrained. 

When  the  two  bands  approached  within  a  few  hun¬ 
dred  yards  of  each  other,  the  eagle  eye  of  Maskepe- 
toom  caught  sight  of  the  murderer.  He  drew  his 
tomahawk  impetuously  from  his  belt,  and  rode  still 
faster  till  he  came  face  to  face  with  the  man  that 
had  treacherously  inflicted  the  greatest  injury  that 
was  possible  upon  the  father;  then,  with  a  voice 
tremulous  with  suppressed  emotion  and  yet  with 
admirable  command  over  himself,  the  chieftain 
looked  in  the  face  the  man  that  had  broken  his 
heart  and  murdered  his  boy,  and  said  to  him,  “  You 
have  killed  my  son,  and  you  deserve  to  die.  I 
selected  you  as  his  trusted  companion,  and  gave  you 
the  post  of  honour  as  his  comrade,  and  you  have 
betrayed  my  trust  and  cruelly  murdered  my  only 
boy.  No  greater  injury  could  you  have  done  to  me 
and  to  my  tribe.  You  have  not  only  broken  my 
heart,  but  you  have  killed  him  who  was  to  have  been 
my  successor.  You  ought  to  die,  by  all  the  laws  of 
Indian  tribes;  but  I  heard  from  the  missionary  last 
night  at  the  camp  fire,  that,  if  we  expect  the  Great 
Spirit  to  forgive  us,  we  must  forgive  our  enemies, 
even  those  who  have  done  to  us  the  greatest  wrongs; 
and  but  for  this  I  would  have  buried  my  tomahawk 


234 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  AEOSTLES. 


in  your  brains  at  this  instant.  You  have  been  my 
most  cruel  enemy,  and  you  deserve  death;  but,”  he 
added,  as  his  voice  trembled  with  still  deeper  emotion, 
uas  I  hope  the  Great  Spirit  will  forgive  me,  I 
freely  forgive  you.  But  go  away  from  me  and  from 
my  people,  and  let  me  never  again  see  your  face.” 
Then  Maskepetoom  hastily  pulled  up  over  his  head 
his  war  bonnet,  his  voice  completely  broke  down,  and 
actually  quivered  with  the  feelings  that  were  tearing 
his  heart,  but  which  he  had  for  the  time  suppressed ; 
the  gigantic  form  bowed  low  over  the  neck  of  the 
horse,  and  he  gave  way  to  an  agony  of  tears. 

This  great  chieftain  not  only  became  a  devoted 
and  consistent  Christian,  but  for  years  afterwards 
lived  a  becoming  and  beautiful  life.  He  gave  up  all 
his  old  warlike  habits.  He  mastered  the  syllabic 
characters  in  which  the  Cree  Bible  was  printed.  He 
made  the  word  of  God  his  daily  solace,  his  counsel¬ 
lor,  and  his  joy,  and  the  remainder  of  his  days  were 
spent-  in  service  to  God  and  man.  He  delivered 
thrilling  and  earnest  addresses  to  his  own  people, 
urging  them  to  give  up  all  their  old  sinful  ways, 
and  become  followers  of  that  Saviour  who  had  so 
grandly  saved  him.  They  listened  to  his  words,  and 
many,  like  him,  abandoned  their  old  warlike  habits, 
and  settled  down  into  lives  of  peaceful  quiet.  He  was 
so  desirous  even  to  benefit  his  old  enemies,  the  Black- 
feet,  and  to  tell  them  the  story  of  a  Saviour’s  love, 
that  he  actually  went  fearless  and  unarmed  among 
them,  Bible  in  hand.  His  end  was  the  end  of  a 
martyr,  for  a  bloodthirsty  chief  of  that  vindictive 
tribe  saw  him  approaching,  and,  remembering  some 
of  the  fierce  conflicts  they  had  waged  in  other  days, 
and,  doubtless,  having  lost  by  the  prowess  of  Mas¬ 
kepetoom  some  of  his  own  relatives  in  those  conflicts, 
he  seized  his  gun,  and,  in  defiance  of  all  rules  of  hu¬ 
manity,  not  to  say  magnanimity,  he  coolly  shot  the 
unarmed  and  converted  Christian  chieftain  in  cold 
blood. 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS . 


235 


And  so  fell  a  man  who  was  a  wondrous  trophy  of  the 
cross,  a  chieftain  whose  conversion  did  a  vast  amount 
of  good,  showing  how  the  gospel  can  change  the  hard¬ 
est  heart,  eradicate  the  most  deeply  rooted  habits,  and 
enable  a  warlike  savage  so  thoroughly  to  conquer  the 
besetting  sin  of  the  Indian  character,  even  under  the 
most  extreme  provocation  and  where  few  could  have 
found  fault  if  the  price  of  blood  had  been  exacted 
and  the  murderer  executed,  as  actually  to  forgive  the 
offender.  This  is  the  more  remarkable,  because  re¬ 
venge,  like  cannibalism,  has  its  root  in  a  religious  or 
superstitious  conviction.  Dr.  S.  McFarlane  says 
that  cannibalism  can  be  accounted  for  in  no  way  sat¬ 
isfactorily  but  as  a  religious  practice.  He  gives 
many  proofs  of  this  position.  It  is  not  due  to  appe¬ 
tite  for  human  flesh,  nor  simply  to  vindictive  feeling 
toward  enemies.  They  regard  the  devouring  of  an 
enemy  as  the  means  of  incorporating  into  themselves 
the  strength  of  a  slain  foe,  and  all  the  ceremonies  of 
cannibalism  are  invested  with  the  sanctities  of  re¬ 
ligion.  And  so  we  may  say,  of  the  Indian  character, 
as  to  revenge;  it  is  not  regarded  by  them  as  a  vice, 
but  a  virtue,  as  the  quality  of  a  manly,  brave,  and 
noble  spirit;  as  a  form  of  justice,  not  simply  of  hate¬ 
ful  passion ;  and  something  to  be  cherished,  not  to  be 
suppressed.  An  Indian  without  revenge  is  a  coward 
in  the  tribe,  and  there  is  nothing  from  which  an  In¬ 
dian  shrinks  more  than  from  the  charge  of  cowardice ; 
and  so,  when  the  gospel  overcomes  in  a  man  like 
Maskepetoom  the  instinct  of  revenge,  and  especially 
when  revenge  could  be  justified  as  a  judicial  act,  in¬ 
flicting  punishment  upon  a  murderer,  it  is  one  of  the 
marks  of  the  miracle-working  power  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ. 

Ling-Ching-Ting — The  Chinese  Opium-Smoker. 

Rev.  James  Main  was  so  shocked  at  the  vacuity  of 
a  Chinaman’s  face  that  he  declared  there  was  in  the 
very  look  of  a  Chinese  audience  somewhat  that 


236 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


seemed  to  say  that  the  consequence  of  not  having 
heard  the  gospel  was  a  loss  of  all  capacity  to  receive 
and  understand  it. 

Thirty  years  ago,  in  Foochow,  a  man,  of  about 
forty,  found  his  way  into  the  little  suburban  chapel 
at  Ato,  and  his  eyes  and  ears  were  fixed  upon  the 
Rev.  S.  L.  Binkley,  who  was  preaching  on  the  all- 
sufficiency  of  Christ  to  save.  For  some  reason  this 
poor  Chinaman’s  attention  hadbeen  strangely  riveted 
to  the  truth,  and  he  tarried  at  the  close  of  the  service 
to  converse  with  the  missionary.  He  said,  “This 
Jesus  I  never  heard  of  until  now,  and  I  don’t  know 
who  He  is;  but  did  you  not  say  that  He  can  save 
me  from  all  my  sins  ?  ”  “  Yes,”  replied  Mr.  Binkley, 

“  I  said  exactly  that.”  “  But  then  you  did  not  know 
me  when  you  said  so.  I  have  been  for  many  years  a 
liar,  a  gambler,  a  sorcerer,  an  adulterer,  and  for 
twenty  years  an  opium-smoker,  and  no  man  who  has 
used  opium  for  so  long  a  time  was  ever  known  to  be 
cured.  Now  if  you  had  known  me,  you  would  never 
have  said  what  you  did,  do  you  see  ?  ”  Of  course  the 
missionary  could  only  repeat  with  emphasis  his 
former  declaration,  about  the  power  and  willingness 
of  Jesus  to  save  his  believing  people  from  even  such 
a  multitude  of  sins ! 

The  opium-smoker  was  struck  dumb  with  amaze¬ 
ment.  His  mind  was  in  bondage  to  ancient  super¬ 
stitions  ;  the  poison  of  lust  was  in  his  very  blood ;  and 
worse  than  all,  he  was  sold  in  hopeless  slavery  to  the 
awful  drug  and  his  will  was  in  chains  to  a  habit  of 
twenty  years,  and  he  had  never  yet  known  any  such 
victim  to  be  set  free.  The  thought  of  such  a  deliver¬ 
ance  as  even  possible,  of  salvation  from  all  his  sins, 
was  too  much — he  was  dazed  by  the  glory  of  such 
new  freedom  and  dared  not  believe  such  statements 
to  be  other  than  extravagant  fancies  or  tormenting 
illusions.  And  so  he  went  away;  but  he  came  back 
the  next  day,  and  day  after  day,  to  hear  more  of  this 
wonderful  Saviour,  and  to  look  into  this  gospel  of  sal- 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS.  23? 

vation  that  promised  to  free  even  an  opium -slave. 
Weeks  passed  by ;  and  one  morning  impetuously  rush¬ 
ing  into  the  missionaries’  room,  before  his  tongue 
could  speak  his  radiant  face  had  told  of  his  new  dis¬ 
covery:  “I  know  it  now!  Jesus  can  save  me  from 
all  my  sins,  for  He  has  done  it.” 

Yes,  so  quick  had  been  the  victory  of  faith  that 
the  last  and  worst  enemy  was  destroyed;  the  habit 
was  broken,  and  even  the  desire  was  gone.  He  no 
longer  felt  the  bonds  under  which  he  had  hopelessly 
struggled  for  so  many  years.  Christ  had  made  him 
free;  and  such  deliverance  demanded  a  declaration. 
The  opium  slave  must  speak,  for  he  believed;  he 
must  go  back  to  Hok-chiang,  where  his  companions 
in  sin  lived,  and  tell  them  of  this  Jesus  who  could 
save  them  from  all  their  sins.  Friends  sought  to 
dissuade  him  from  preaching  this  doctrine  of  these 
foreign  devils;  or,  if  he  would,  let  him  stay  at  Foo¬ 
chow,  where  he  would  be  safe,  and  not  risk  the  riot¬ 
ous  mobs  at  Hok-chiang,  who  would  take  off  his 
head,  and  then  there  would  be  a  stop  to  all  his  talk¬ 
ing.  But,  no !  Ling-Ching-Ting  would  go  to  his  own 
people,  and  with  no  weapon  but  the  word  of  God. 
He  went.  He  told  the  story  of  a  great  salvation  for 
the  worst  of  sinners,  and  held  up  himself  as  an  illus¬ 
tration — like  Paul,  a  pattern  for ..  other  believers. 
Pelted  with  clods  and  stones,  beaten  and  bruised, 
driven  from  place  to  place,  his  witness  could  not  be 
stopped.  At  last  his  persecutors  brought  him  before 
a  cruel  district  magistrate  at  Hok-chiang,  and  false 
witnesses  preferred  against  him  the  vilest  charges; 
and  the  corrupt  judge,  glad  to  deal  out  revenge 
against  this  foreign  sect,  actually  sentenced  him  to 
receive  two  thousand  stripes !  and  upon  his  bare  back 
the  cruel  bamboo  was  mercilessly  laid,  until  the  flesh 
lay  in  strips.  He  was  borne  to  the  mission  prem¬ 
ises  almost  dead,  and  the  doctor  declared  that  such 
injuries  he  had  never  before  seen  inflicted  by  the 
bamboo. 


23$  THE  HE IV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

When  Dr.  Baldwin  sought  to  comfort  this  martyr 
of  Christ,  before  he  could  find  words  with  which  to 
address  him,  the  suffering  saint,  so  lately  the  chief 
of  sinners,  said  with  a  smile:  ‘ 4  Teacher,  this  poor 
body  be  in  great  pain,  but  my  inside  heart  be  in  a 
great  peace.,,  Then,  to  the  astonishment  of  the 
missionary,  lifting  himself  a  little  on  his  bloody 
cot,  he  said,  “  If  I  get  up  again  from  this,  you 
will  let  me  go  back  to  Hok-chiang,  won’t  you?  ” 

For  some  time  his  recovery  seemed  doubtful,  and 
then  improvement  slowly  began.  While  yet  but  half 
healed,  and  scarce  able  to  walk,  he  stole  away,  and 
suddenly  appeared  at  Hok-chiang  to  preach  again  to 
his  hateful  persecutors ;  and  it  was  not  strange  that 
words  of  witness,  sealed  by  such  experiences  of 
blood,  brought  his  very  foes  to  his  Saviour. 

Ling-Ching-Ting  for  fourteen  years  kept  on  preach¬ 
ing.  He  was  ordained  in  1869.  He  won  hundreds 
of  converts,  and  a  score  of  native  preachers  learned 
from  him  to  tell  the  old  story  of  full  salvation.  In 
1876,  failing  health  gave  the  signal  of  his  approach¬ 
ing  end;  but  when  too  weak  to  stand,  he  still  gath¬ 
ered  around  him  those  to  whom  he  could  bear 
witness  to  the  Saviour,  and  passed  away,  singing,  in 
the  joy  of  an  unclouded  hope. 

Narayan  Sheshadri — The  Brahman  Apostle. 

From  the  converts  of  India  we  select  this  remark¬ 
able  man  who  became  the  first  convert  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland,  under  the  ministry  of  Dr.  John 
Wilson,  and  Dr.  Murray  Mitchell,  fifty  years  ago. 
He  spent  some  years  as  a  missionary,  teacher  and 
preacher,  and  was  then  ordained  by  the  Presbytery 
of  Bombay,  and  for  the  rest  of  his  life  this  highly 
educated  Brahman  devoted  himself  to  a  ministry  of 
love  among  the  outcast  Mangs  of  the  Deccan  centre 
of  India.  He  left  ordinary  British  territory  that  he 
might  undertake  to  annex  the  great  native  state  of 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS . 


239 


Hyderabad  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  This  was  in 
the  year  1863,  when  he  was  about  forty  years  of  age. 
His  evangelistic  work  was  unceasing  and  untiring. 
He  secured  a  tract  of  some  three  hundred  acres  near 
Jalna,  and  formed  a  Christian  Church  and  commun¬ 
ity  which  he  called  #by  the  name  of  Bethel.  After 
ten  years  of  toil  he  visited  Scotland  and  America 
that  he  might  interest  the  churches  in  his  work  and 
raise  money  for  necessary  enlargement.  Those  who 
saw  him  in  his  native  Indian  dress  and  white  turban 
will  not  soon  forget  the  impression  that  he  made  in 
the  assemblies  in  which  he  moved.  His  face  was 
charming,  and  his  personality  magnetic.  His  com¬ 
mand  of  the  English  tongue  was  such  as  left  little 
distinction  between  himself  and  the  natives  of  Scot¬ 
land.  He  had  an  extremely  pithy  and  impressive 
way  of  speaking,  and  his  earnestness  was  both  cap¬ 
tivating  and  contagious.  He  was  at  the  Presbyterian 
Alliance  in  Philadelphia  in  1880.  He  was  made 
doctor  of  divinity  by  the  University  of  Montreal. 

There  were  no  pews  in  the  Bethel  Church  in  India. 
The  congregation  sat  on  the  floor  in  rows,  devout 
and  attentive,  while  the  babies  crawled  about  every¬ 
where.  An  hour  or  so  after  service  the  catechists 
and  Bible  women  met.  Bands  went  forth  under  Dr. 
Sheshadri’s  training  to  preach  in  the  villages  round 
about  Bethel;  and  in  this  way  small  communities 
were  formed.  He  carried  on  work  amid  the  thirty- 
three  villages  where  Christian  converts  resided,  and, 
in  1890,  reported  1,062  living  members,  beside  649 
adherents.  These  native  Christians  keep  all  their 
primitive  simplicity,  and  are  not  Anglicised  by  their 
Christianity. 

Dr.  Sheshadri  was  a  teacher  as  well  as  a  preacher, 
singularly  facile  in  his  interpretation  of  Scripture, 
and  acute  in  meeting  objections  brought  by  Hindus 
and  Moslems  against  Christianity.  He  sought  to  train 
over  a  thousand  converts  into  intelligent  disciples  and 
workers.  He  left  Bombay  for  Japan  on  account  of 


240  THE  NE  JV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

impaired  health,  in  February,  1891,  and  visited 
America ;  but  on  his  return,  while  en  route  for  Glas¬ 
gow,  died,  and  was  buried  in  mid-Atlantic.  Here 
was  a  Brahman  lad  who  confessed  Jesus  Christ  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Bombay,  and  who  was  blessed 
to  lead  some  2,000  of  his  countrymen  to  Christ. 
What  has  been  done  in  the  case  of  one  educated  and 
accomplished  Brahman,  who  in  his  youth  had  been 
identified  with  the  gods  and  entitled  to  worship,  may 
yet  be  accomplished  among  thousands  and  millions 
of  his  fellow-countrymen.  His  first  confession  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  in  the  presence  of  the  Civil  Court. 
In  1843  two  brothers  left  the  fire  worship  of  Zoroaster 
for  the  service  of  Christ,  and  their  baptism  led  two 
Brahman  brothers  also  to  confess  Jesus  as  Saviour. 
They  were  Narayan  and  Shripat.  The  Civil  Court  was 
appealed  to.  The  younger  was  not  sixteen  years  old, 
and  Sir  Erskine  Perry  handed  him  over  to  the  Brah¬ 
man  priests,  sneering  at  his  plea  that  he  had  arrived 
at  the  age  of  discretion.  Torn  from  the  arms  of  the 
missionary,  Nesbit,  he  sobbed  forth  the  question, 
“  Am  I  to  be  compelled  to  worship  idols  ?  ”  It  was 
thus  a  Christian  judge  drove  this  lad  back  into  Brah¬ 
manism,  and  he  was  compelled  to  swallow  the 
five  products  of  the  cow  that  he  might  be  restored  to 
caste;  but  his  older  brother,  Narayan,  being  confess¬ 
edly  of  age,  could  not  be  hindered,  and  started  on  his 
new  career  as  the  Brahman  apostle. 

Joseph  H.  Neesima — The  Japanese  Educator. 

Fifty  years  ago,  there  was  born  in  the  Sunrise 
Kingdom  a  boy  for  whom  God  had  decreed  a 
future  which  was  to  bear  wrought  into  it,  as  into 
the  crusader’s  cloak,  the  red  sign  of  the  cross.  He 
was  but  five  years  old  when  he  renounced  idol  wor¬ 
ship,  though  he  had  not  yet  found  a  faith  that  fed  his 
soul-hunger.  Then  a  stray  copy  of  a  sort  of  Chinese 
Bible  fell  into  his  hands,  and  that  opening  sentence : 
*  ‘  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


241 


earth,”  struck  his  youthful  mind  as  more  sublimely 
simple  and  satisfactory  than  any  account  of  the 
origin  of  all  things  that  he  had  ever  met.  The 
transcendental  philosophers  tell  us  that  the  owl  comes 
from  the  egg,  and  the  egg  from  the  owl,  but  fail  to 
answer  the  question,  where  did  the  first  owl  come 
from  that  laid  the  first  egg?  But  here  young  Nees- 
ima  found  a  great  First  Cause. 

Thus  he  first  got  a  glimpse  of  the  Christian  God, 
and  began  to  feel  after  Him,  if  haply  he  might  find 
Him;  and  untaught  by  man,  he  prayed,  “  O,  if  you 
have  eyes,  look  upon  me;  if  you  have  ears,  listen  for 
me!”  A  glimpse  of  an  atlas  of  the  United  States 
had  also  awakened  a  desire  to  see  more  of  that  West¬ 
ern  World,  and  he  thought,  if  he  could  get  away  from 
Japan,  he  might  both  see  America  and  learn  more 
of  this  new  faith.  And  so,  in  disguise,  he  sailed  for 
Shanghai,  and  thence  worked  his  way  to  Boston,  on 
the  voyage  studying  English  and  reading  a  Chinese 
New  Testament  which  he  bought  in  Hong  Kong. 

As  in  the  first  verse  of  Genesis  he  had  found  God 
the  Creator,  so  in  John  iii.  1 6  he  found  God  the 
Saviour.  Arriving  at  Boston,  he  fell  in  with  a  copy 
of  Robinson  Crusoe,  and  was  taught  by  the  prayer 
of  Crusoe  in  shipwreck  how  to  draw  near  to  God. 
Nothing  happens  by  chance;  and  it  was  a  part  of 
God’s  strange  ordering  that  the  owner  of  the  ship  in 
which  he  had  come  to  Boston  should  be  Alpheus 
Hardy,  one  of  the  most  benevolent  and  missionary- 
spirited  men  then  in  America.  Hearing  of  young 
Neesima  from  the  captain,  he  sought  out  the  Jap¬ 
anese  stranger,  and  gave  him  a  name,  Joseph  Hardy, 
declaring  that  God  had  raised  him  up  to  be  to  his 
own  people  a  saviour,  like  Joseph  in  Egypt.  Mr. 
Hardy’s  help  secured  to  Neesima  a  Christian  col¬ 
legiate  training ;  and  the  result  was  that  he  developed 
so  beautiful  a  character  that  when  President  Seelye 
was  asked  for  a  testimonial  to  his  worth,  his  sufficient 
answer  was,  “  You  cannot  gild  gold !  ” 


242 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


While  he  was  studying  theology  in  1871-2,  the  Jap¬ 
anese  Embassy,  at  Washington,  secured  his  services  as 
an  interpreter,  and  the  year  he  spent  with  them  visit¬ 
ing  the  American  cities  and  European  capitals  was 
radiant  with  his  shining  example  of  Christ-likeness. 
These  distinguished  men  secured  him  a  pardon  for 
leaving  his  own  land  without  leave,  and  when  he 
returned  to  Japan,  they  were  at  the  head  of  govern¬ 
ment,  and  gave  him  aid  in  his  projects  for  the  Chris¬ 
tian  education  of  his  countrymen. 

Joseph  Neesima  became  the  first  native  evangelist 
of  his  race.  He  not  only  preached  Christ  boldly  and 
taught  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  but  before  he  left 
America,  had  secured  the  money  with  which  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  Doshisha,  the  training  college  of 
Kyoto,  for  Japanese  pastors. 

Urged  by  his  friends  of  the  embassy  to  take  a 
prominent  and  lucrative  part  in  the  government  of 
the  New  Japan,  he  could  be  drawn  aside  by  no  bait 
of  money,  position  or  personal  gain.  He  bore  the 
cross  to  the  heart  of  the  Island  Empire,  first  preach¬ 
ing  Christ  in  the  interior;  and  persistently  wrought 
at  his  great  educational  enterprise  for  fifteen  years, 
facing  all  obstacles,  and  patiently  and  prayerfully 
holding  on  to  his  “  one  endeavour,”  as  Doshisha 
implies,  until,  before  his  death,  he  had  seen  more 
than  nine  hundred  pupils  in  his  school. 

His  perseverance  was  Apostolic.  When  as  yet  the 
Bible  could  not  openly  be  taught,  he  taught  Christian¬ 
ity  under  the  disguise  of  moral  science.  When  to  put 
up  buildings  for  a  Christian  school  was  pronounced 
even  by  friends  to  be  as  hopeless  and  chimerical 
as  to  6 6  attempt  to  fly  to  Mars,”  his  faith  was  so  cour¬ 
ageous  that  in  four  months  the  buildings  were  open¬ 
ing  and  the  objector  was  taking  part  in  the  dedication ! 
He  used  to  say  that  he  could  have  been  nailed  to  a 
literal  cross  with  less  suffering  than  his  labours  for 
Christ  had  cost ;  yet  nothing  but  the  hand  of  death 
ever  arrested  his  work  or  even  dampened  his  ardour. 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS. 


243 


To  the  last  he  was  planning  new  enterprises  for  the 
evangelization  and  education  of  his  countrymen. 
Death  overtook  him,  as  it  overtook  Goujon,  the 
sculptor,  who,  with  chisel  in  hand,  had  his  eye  fixed  on  a 
half-carved  statue.  He  was  dictating  final  messages 
to  his  school  and  the  missionary  society:  and,  like  a 
great  general,  with  maps  of  five  provinces  before  him, 
was  marking  the  strategic  points,  and  issuing  orders 
for  a  grand  campaign. 

His  funeral  marks  an  era  in  the  history  of  Japan. 
The  foremost  convert,  the  apostle  of  Japan,  was 
dead.  Seven  hundred  students  of  the  Doshisha, 
seventy  graduates  from  all  parts  of  the  empire,  gov¬ 
ernment  officials,  and  even  a  delegation  of  Buddhist 
priests  from  Osaka,  thronged  the  procession  that  fol¬ 
lowed  to  its  resting-place  the  body  of  the  man  who, 
not  yet  fifty  years  old,  had  made  upon  the  empire  a 
mark  such  as  no  other  had  ever  left  for  good. 

Burial  could  not  be  permitted  beside  his  father  in 
the  Buddhist  Temple  grove;  but  the  refusal  was 
itself  the  most  splendid  tribute  to  his  worth ;  for  the 
assigned  reason  was  that  Neesima  was  the  very  chief 
and  head  centre  of  Christianity  in  Japan,  and  must 
not,  therefore,  find  a  grave  in  the  sacred  cemetery  of 
Buddhism ! 

Susi  and  Chuma — “  Livingstone’s  Body-guard.” 

The  work  of  David  Livingstone  in  Africa  was  so 
far  that  of  a  missionary  explorer  and  general,  that 
the  field  of  his  labour  is  too  broad  to  permit  us  to 
trace  individual  harvests.  No  man  can  thickly  scatter 
seed  over  so  wide  an  area.  But  there  is  one  marvel¬ 
lous  story  connected  with  his  death,  and  which  has  to 
do  with  individual  character,  the  like  of  which 
has  never  been  written  on  the  scroll  of  human  his¬ 
tory.  All  the  ages  may  safely  be  challenged  to  fur¬ 
nish  its  parallel. 

On  the  night  of  his  death  he  called  for  Susi,  his 
faithful  servant,  and,  after  some  tender  ministries 


244 


THE  NEW  A  CTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


had  been  rendered  to  the  dying  man,  Livingstone 
said,  “  All  right;  you  may  go  out  now.”  And  reluc¬ 
tantly  Susi  left  him  alone.  At  four  o’clock  next 
morning,  May  i,  Susi  and  Chuma,  with  four  other 
devoted  attendants,  anxiously  entered  that  grass  hut 
at  Ilala.  The  candle  was  still  burning,  but  the 
greater  light  had  gone  out.  Their  great  master,  as 
they  called  him,  was  on  his  knees,  his  body  stretched 
forward,  his  head  buried  in  his  hands  upon  the  pil¬ 
low.  With  silent  awe  they  stood  apart  and  watched 
him,  lest  they  should  invade  the  privacy  of  prayer. 
But  he  did  not  stir ;  there  was  not  even  the  motion  of 
breathing,  but  a  suspicious  rigidity  of  inaction.  Then 
one  of  these  black  men,  Matthew,  softly  came  near  and 
gently  laid  his  hands  upon  his  cheeks.  It  was 
enough:  the  chill  of  death  was  there.  The  great 
father  of  Africa’s  dark  children  was  dead,  and  they 
were  orphans. 

The  most  refined  and  cultured  Englishmen  would 
have  been  perplexed  as  to  what  course  to  take. 
They  were  surrounded  by  superstitious  and  unsym¬ 
pathetic  savages,  to  whom  the  unburied  remains  of 
the  dead  man  would  be  an  object  of  dread.  His 
native  land  was  six  thousand  miles  away,  and  even 
the  coast  was  distant  fifteen  hundred.  A  grave  respon¬ 
sibility  rested  upon  these  simple-minded  sons  of  the 
Dark  Continent, — a  burden,  to  which  few  of  the  wisest 
and  ablest  would  have  been  equal.  Those  remains, 
with  his  valuable  journals,  instruments,  and  personal 
effects,  must  be  carried  to  Zanzibar.  But  the  body  must 
first  be  preserved  from  decay,  and  they  had  no  skill  nor 
facilities  for  embalming;  and,  if  preserved,  there  were 
no  means  of  transportation — no  roads  or  carts;  no 
beasts  of  burden  available — the  body  must  be  borne 
on  the  shoulders  of  human  beings;  and,  as  no 
strangers  could  be  trusted,  they  must  themselves 
undertake  the  journey  and  the  sacred  charge. 
These  humble  children  of  the  forest  were  grandly 
equal  to  the  occasion,  and  they  resolved  among 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS . 


245 


themselves  to  carry  that  body  to  the  sea-shore,  and 
not  give  it  into  any  other  hands  until  they  could  sur¬ 
render  it  to  his  countrymen.  And,  to  insure  safety 
to  the  remains  and  security  to  the  bearers,  it  must 
be  done  with  secrecy.  They  would  gladly  have  kept 
secret  even  their  master’s  death,  but  the  fact  could 
not  be  concealed.  God,  however,  disposed  Chitambo 
and  his  subjects  to  permit  these  servants  of  the  great 
missionary  to  prepare  his  emaciated  body  for  its  last 
journey,  in  a  hut  built  for  the  purpose  on  the  out¬ 
skirts  of  the  village. 

Now  watch  these  black  men,  as  they  rudely  em¬ 
balm  the  body  of  him  who  had  been  to  them  a 
saviour.  They  tenderly  open  the  chest  and  take  out 
the  heart  and  viscera:  these,  with  a  poetic  and 
pathetic  sense  of  fitness,  they  reserve  for  his  beloved 
Africa.  The  heart  that  for  thirty-three  years  had  beat 
for  her  welfare  must  be  buried  in  her  own  bosom. 
And  so  one  of  the  Nassik  boys,  Jacob  Wain wright,  read 
the  simple  service  of  burial,  and  under  the  moula-tree 
at  Ilala  that  heart  was  deposited;  and  the  tree,  carved 
with  a  simple  inscription,  became  his  monument. 
Then  the  body  was  prepared  for  its  long  journey; 
the  cavity  was  filled  with  salt,  brandy  poured  into 
the  mouth,  and  the  corpse  laid  out  in  the  sun  for 
fourteen  days  to  be  dried,  and  so  reduced  to  the  con¬ 
dition  of  a  mummy.  Then  it  was  thrust  into  a  hol¬ 
low  cylinder  of  bark,  over  this  was  sewn  a  covering 
of  canvas,  the  whole  package  securely  lashed  to  a 
pole,  and  so  it  was  made  ready  to  be  borne  between 
two  men  upon  their  shoulders. 

A§>  yet  the  enterprise  was  scarcely  begun — and  the 
worst  of  their  task  was  yet  before  them.  The  sea 
was  far  away,  and  their  path  lay  through  a  territory 
where  nearly  every  fifty  miles  would  bring  them  to  a 
new  tribe,  to  face  new  difficulties.  Nevertheless, 
Susi  and  Chuma  took  up  their  precious  burden,  and, 
looking  to  Livingstone’s  God  for  help,  began  the  most 
remarkable  funeral  march  on  record.  They  followed 


246 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


the  track  their  master  had  marked  with  his  footsteps 
when  he  penetrated  to  Lake  Bangweolo — passing  to 
the  south  of  Lake  Liembe,  which  is  a  continuation  of 
Tanganyika,  then  crossing  to  Unyanyembe.  Wherever 
it  was  found  out  that  they  were  bearing  a  dead  body, 
shelter  was  hard  to  get  or  even  food ;  and  at  Kase- 
kera,  they  could  get  nothing  they  asked,  except  on 
condition  that  they  would  bury  the  remains  they 
were  carrying.  And  now  their  love  and  generalship 
were  put  to  a  new  and  severe  test.  But  again  they 
were  equal  to  the  emergency.  They  made  up  an¬ 
other  package  like  the  precious  burden,  only  that  it 
contained  branches  instead  of  human  bones — and  this 
with  mock  solemnity  they  bore  on  their  shoulders  to 
a  safe  distance  and  scattered  the  contents  far  and 
wide  in  the  brushwood,  and  came  back  without  the 
bundle.  Meanwhile  others  of  their  party  had  re¬ 
packed  the  remains,  doubling  them  up  into  the  sem¬ 
blance  of  a  bale  of  cotton  cloth,  and  so  once  more 
they  managed  to  get  what  they  needed  and  get  on 
with  their  charge. 

The  true  story  of  that  nine  months*  march  has 
never  yet  been  written,  and  it  never  will  be,  for  the 
full  data  cannot  be  supplied.  But  here  is  material 
waiting  for  some  coming  English  Homer  or  Milton 
to  crystallize  into  one  of  the  world’s  noblest  epics; 
and  it  deserves  the  master-hand  of  a  great  poet  artist 
to  do  it  justice. 

See  these  black  men,  whom  your  scientific  philos¬ 
ophers  would  place  at  one  remove  from  the  gorilla, 
run  all  manner  of  risks,  by  day  and  night,  for  forty 
weeks;  now  going  round  by  a  circuitous  route  to 
insure  safe  passage;  now  compelled  to  resort  to 
stratagem  to  get  their  precious  burden  through  the 
country ;  sometimes  forced  to  fight  their  foes  in  order 
to  carry  out  their  holy  mission.  Follow  them  as 
they  ford  the  rivers  and  traverse  trackless  deserts, 
daring  perils  from  wild  beasts  and  relentless  wild 
men;  exposing  themselves  to  the  fatal  fever,  and 


NEW  CONVERTS  AND  MARTYRS . 


247 


burying  several  of  their  little  band  on  the  way;  yet, 
on  they  went,  patient  and  persevering,  never  fainting 
or  halting,  until  love  and  gratitude  had  done  all  that 
could  be  done,  and  they  laid  down  at  the  feet  of  the 
British  Consul,  on  the  12th  of  March,  1874,  all  that 
was  left  on  earth  of  Scotland’s  great  hero,  save  that 
buried  heart. 

When,  a  little  more  than  a  month  later,  the  coffin 
of  Livingstone  was  landed  in  England,  April  15,  it 
was  felt  that  no  less  a  shrine  than  Britain’s  greatest 
burial-place  could  fitly  hold  such  precious  dust.  But 
so  improbable  and  incredible  did  it  seem  that  a  few 
rude  Africans  could  actually  have  done  this  splendid 
deed,  at  such  cost  of  time  and  risk,  that,  not  until 
the  fractured  bones  of  the  arm,  which  the  lion 
crushed  at  Mabotsa  thirty  years  before,  identified 
the  body,  was  it  certain  that  these  were  Livingstone’s 
remains.  And  then,  on  the  18th  of  April,  1874,  such 
a  funeral  cortege  entered  the  great  Abbey  of  Britain’s 
illustrious  dead  as  few  warriors  or  heroes  or  princes 
ever  drew  to  that  mausoleum.  And  those  faithful 
body-servants,  who  had  religiously  brought  home 
every  relic  of  the  person  or  property  of  the  great 
missionary  explorer,  were  accorded  places  of  honor. 
And  well  they  might  be.  No  triumphal  procession 
of  earth’s  mightiest  conqueror  ever  equalled  for  sub¬ 
limity  that  lonely  journey  through  Africa’s  forests. 
An  example  of  tenderness,  gratitude,  devotion, 
heroism,  equal  to  this,  the  world  has  never  seen. 
The  exquisite  inventiveness  of  a  love  that  on  the 
feet  of  Jesus  lavished  tears  as  water,  and  made  tresses 
of  hair  a  towel,  and  broke  the  alabaster  flask  for  His 
anointing ;  the  feminine  tenderness  that  lifted  His  man¬ 
gled  body  from  the  cross  and  wrapped  it  in  new  linen, 
with  costly  spices,  and  laid  it  in  a  virgin  tomb — even 
this  has  at  length  been  surpassed  by  the  ingenious 
devotion  of  the  cursed  sons  of  Canaan.  The  grandeur 
and  pathos  of  that  burial  scene  amid  the  stately 
columns  and  arches  of  England’s  famous  Abbey  loses 


248 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


in  lustre  when  contrasted  with  that  simpler  scene 
near  Ilala,  when,  in  God’s  greater  cathedral  of  Nature, 
whose  columns  and  arches  are  the  trees,  whose  sur- 
pliced  choir  are  the  singing  birds,  whose  organ  is  the 
moaning  wind, — the  grassy  carpet  was  lifted  and  dark 
hands  laid  Livingstone’s  heart  to  rest!  And  in  the 
great  cortege  that  moved  up  the  nave  of  Westminster, 
no  truer  nobleman  was  found  than  that  black  man,  Susi, 
who  in  illness  had  nursed  the  Blantyre  hero,  had  laid 
his  heart  in  Africa’s  bosom,  and  whose  hand  was  now 
upon  his  pall.  Let  those  who  doubt  and  deride  Chris¬ 
tian  missions  to  the  degraded  children  of  Ham,  who 
tell  us  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  sacrifice  precious 
lives  for  the  sake  of  these  doubly  lost  millions  of  the 
Dark  Continent, — let  such  tell  us  whether  it  is  not 
worth  while,  at  any  cost,  to  seek  out  and  save  men 
of  whom  such  Christian  heroism  is  possible ! 


IIL 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 

The  Pitcairn  Islanders. 

By  His  book  alone,  God  has  wrought  wonders  of 
transformation. 

We  have  been  wont  to  think  the  presence  of  per¬ 
sonal  agency  an  essential  condition  of  the  work  of 
conversion ;  and  perhaps,  in  view  of  the  emphasis  laid 
by  God  Himself  upon  the  living  voice  and  the  believ¬ 
er’s  witness,  we  are  not  likely  to  give  any  undue 
importance  to  personal  contact  with  souls.  But  we 
must  not  forget  that  God’s  choice  of  human  channels 
for  His  grace  does  not  leave  Him  absolutely  depend¬ 
ent  upon  them.  In  more  instances  than  one,  He  has 
set  His  peculiar  seal  and  sanction  upon  His  own  in¬ 
spired  word  as  the  means  of  softening  hard  hearts 
and  changing  foes  to  friends. 

The  story  of  the  Pitcairn  exiles  is  an  illustration  of 
the  power  of  the  Bible  alone,  as  the  seed  of  God,  to 
raise  up  in  the  most  sterile  soil  and  amid  most  hope¬ 
less  conditions  a  harvest  for  the  kingdom.  For  He 
has  two  sorts  of  seed — one  is  the  word  of  God;  the 
other  the  children  of  the  kingdom.  (Mark  iv.  14; 
Matt.  xiii.  38.) 

In  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  mutineer,  John 
Adams,  God’s  way  may  possibly  have  been  prepared 
by  early  parental  training  of  which  we  have  no 
record;  but,  so  far  as  we  know,  no  human  hand 
wielded  the  subtle  moulding  influence  that  turned 
that  abandoned  sailor  to  God.  In  this  case  the  soli¬ 
tary  cause  which  wrought  such  miraculous  effects  on 
Pitcairn  Island  was  the  written  word  of  God.  And 
other  facts  are  fast  coming  to  the  surface  and  de¬ 
manding  thankful  recognition,  which  prove  that, 

249 


250 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


quite  apart  from  the  voice  and  presence  of  the  living 
and  witnessing  believer,  the  Bible  is  doing  its  own 
peculiar  work.  Where  the  feet  of  no  other  mission¬ 
ary  have  yet  left  their  tracks,  this  living  word,  which 
liveth  and  abideth  forever,  has  sometimes  proved  the 
pioneer  missionary  and  evangelist. 

Pitcairn  Island  lies  solitary  in  Pacific  waters,  and 
is  about  seven  miles  in  circuit.  Carteret  discovered 
it  over  a  century  and  a  quarter  since,  and  named  it 
after  one  of  his  officers  who  caught  the  first  glimpse 
of  it.  There  for  more  than  sixty  years  the  mutineers 
of  the  Bounty  and  their  descendants  found  a  habita¬ 
tion.  In  1790,  nine  of  these  mutineers  landed  there, 
with  six  men  and  twice  as  many  women  from  Tahiti. 
At  that  time  the  island  was  found  uninhabited, 
though  relics  of  previous  occupancy  were  afterwards 
discovered. 

Among  these  settlers  of  a  century  past,  quarrels 
violent  and  bloody  broke  out,  and  the  flames  of  pas¬ 
sion,  fed  by  strong  drink,  burned  so  hotly  that  when 
the  dawn  of  the  new  century  came,  it  looked  down 
on  desolation:  all  the  Tahitian  men  had  perished, 
and  all  but  one  of  the  Englishmen.  John  Adams 
was,  of  the  mutineers,  the  sole  survivor.  He  had 
rescued  from  the  wreck  a  Bible  and  a  prayer-book. 
Destitute  of  all  other  reading,  and  left  without 
former  companions,  he  turned  to  these  two  books  for 
occupation,  comfort  and  counsel.  As  he  read  the 
word  of  God,  he  began  to  be  conscious  that  he  was 
looking  in  a  magic  mirror — he  saw  himself  in  his 
hideousness,  and  remorse  for  past  sins  and  crimes 
began  to  sting  his  conscience  as  with  a  whip  of  scor¬ 
pions.  And  from  contrition  he  was  led  to  conver¬ 
sion — from  fear  to  faith — and  all  this  without  any 
man  to  guide  him.  He  became  not  only  a  true  be¬ 
liever  in  Christ,  but  a  witness  to  His  grace  and  a 
missionary.  With  the  aid  of  these  two  books,  he 
undertook  to  teach  those  grossly  ignorant  women  of 
Tahiti,  and  the  children  that  were  left  of  this  mixed 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


251 


parentage.  Mark  the  result!  Upon  this  lonely 
island  grew  up  a  Christian  community  so  remarkable 
that  all  travellers  visiting  those  shores  have  borne 
common  witness  to  the  gentleness  of  character  and 
virtuous  simplicity  of  conduct  which  were  there  dis¬ 
played. 

This  story  of  the  Pitcairn  Islanders  thus  stands 
quite  unique  in  the  history  of  missions.  Here  was 
a  bastard  community — a  progeny  whose  parentage 
was  mutiny  and  lust,  from  the  beginning  doubly 
accursed.  Of  all  the  common  institutions  of  the 
gospel,  which  we  significantly  call  “  means  of 
grace,”  there  was  complete  destitution — no  clergy¬ 
men  or  Christian  laymen,  no  churches  or  Sunday- 
schools,  no  restraints  of  law  or  religion.  One  stray 
copy  of  the  blessed  book  of  God,  and  of  that  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  which  is  so  largely  permeated  with 
that  word  of  God, — and  even  these  in  the  hands  of 
a  reckless,  godless  mutineer, — first  became  means  of 
blessing  and  salvation  to  him,  and  then  to  that 
degraded  class  by  whom  he  was  surrounded. 

The  Colonists  of  Sierra  Leone. 

When  William  A.  B.  Johnson  went  to  this 
Mountain  of  Lions,  in  1816,  he  found  the  refuse  of 
slave  ships  there  gathered.  If  the  horrors  of  that 
i  i  middle  passage,”  in  which  four  hundred  wretches 
were  crammed  into  a  hold,  twelve  yards  long,  seven 
wide,  and  three  and  a  half  high,  had  crushed  their 
minds  and  moral  natures  into  as  narrow  a  compass 
as  their  bodies,  they  could  have  not  been  more  hope¬ 
less  subjects  for  labour.  They  were  manumitted 
slaves,  but  in  all  but  name  were  still  in  most  abject 
bondage.  These  liberated  captives  represented 
tribes  so  numerous  that  samples  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  dialects  might  have  been  found  at  Queen’s 
Yard  in  Sierra  Leone.  Johnson  found  himself  at 
Hogbrook,  with  fifteen  hundred  half-starved,  dis- 


252 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


eased,  filthy  Africans,  dying  at  the  rate  of  two  hun¬ 
dred  a  month,  and  already  dead  to  all  response  even 
to  human  kindness.  He  held  a  Sunday  service  with 
but  nine  attendants,  and  these  nearly  nude.  The 
fact  is  that,  like  the  victims  of  Spanish  treachery  in 
Central  America,  they  had  so  suffered  at  white  men’s 
hands,  that  even  the  gospel  was  unwelcome  at  white 
men’s  lips,  and  the  idea  of  Heaven,  if  white  men 
were  to  be  there,  was  almost  as  repulsive  as  hell 
would  be  without  them. 

This  simple-minded  German  fed  them  daily  with 
their  allowance  of  rice,  and  patiently  showed  them 
loving  sympathy,  and  so  won  their  confidence  for 
himself.  Then  they  thronged  his  cottage  to  hear  the 
gospel  until  he  had  to  resort  to  the  open  air  as  a 
meeting-place.  His  school  was  likewise  full  to  over¬ 
flowing,  and  those  pupils  who  had  never  seen  a  book 
or  known  a  letter,  in  less  than  a  year  were  reading 
the  New  Testament.  With  unceasing  labour,  and, 
better  still,  unceasing  prayer,  fighting  the  deadly  cli¬ 
mate  and  the  enfeebling  fever,  seeing  his  fellow- 
helpers  falling  beside  him  till  the  graveyard  at  Kissy 
was  full  of  bodies,  he  persevered,  telling  the  simple 
gospel  story.  And  when,  in  1819,  his  wife’s  illness 
drove  him  to  England,  he  left  at  Regents  Town  a 
model  state,  like  Eliot’s  Nonantum  and  Duncan’s 
Metlakahtla.  The  natives  had  laid  out  a  settlement, 
properly  organized,  with  decent  homes,  and  all  the 
signs  of  a  Christian  community.  They  had  built  a 
church,  which  held  1,300  and  overflowed  with  habitual 
attendants  at  three  services  each  Lord’s  day.  He 
had  263  communicants,  a  daily  service  attended  by 
from  500  to  900,  and  hundreds  of  cases  of  as  deep 
conviction  of  sin  and  as  genuine  conversion  to  God 
as  any  field  ever  produced.  At  the  very  time  when 
his  courageous  faith  almost  gave  way  before  the 
gigantic  obstacles  he  had  to  surmount,  and  he  had 
sought  the  retirement  of  a  forest  to  indulge  in  sor¬ 
rowful  thought,  he  heard  one  of  these  poor  slaves 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES . 


253 


praying  for  the  liberty  of  a  son  of  God,  and  he  knew 
that  the  hour  of  victory  was  at  hand.  Even  the 
secular  authorities  were  constrained,  in  their  report 
to  the  British  Government,  to  confess,  like  Pharaoh’s 
magicians,  “This  is  the  finger  of  God.”  As  they 
contrasted  the  former  state  of  the  colony,  “grovel¬ 
ling  and  malignant  superstitions,  their  greegrees, 
their  red  water,  their  witchcraft,  their  devil  houses,” 
with  the  existing  sincere  Christian  worship,  they 
wrote,  “The  hand  of  Heaven  is  in  this!”  It  is  “a 
miracle  of  good  which  the  immediate  interposition  of 
the  Almighty  alone  could  have  wrought.”  And  they 
added,  “What  greater  blessing  could  man  or  nation 
desire  or  enjoy  than  to  have  been  made  the  instru¬ 
ments  of  conferring  such  sublime  benefits  on  the 
most  abject  of  the  human  race.” 

Johnson  was  so  impressed  with  the  simple  child¬ 
likeness  of  their  faith  and  the  obvious  groaning  of 
the  Spirit  in  their  prayers,  that  his  journals  are  full 
of  these  records.  Their  devotion  to  him  was 
pathetic  and  romantic.  Hundreds  of  them  went  on 
foot  with  him  to  Freetown,  five  miles  off,  and  when 
the  sea  prevented  their  going  with  him  further,  they 
said,  in  their  broken  English:  “  Massa,  suppose  no 
water  live  here — we  go  all  the  way  with  you — till  feet 
no  more.”  And  when  he  came  back,  and  his  arrival 
was  announced  in  the  church  at  night,  some  could 
not  wait  to  go  out  the  door,  but  leaped  out  through 
the  window.  Some  went  that  night  to  Freetown  to 
meet  him,  while  others  could  not  sleep,  but  sang  the 
night  away. 

Again,  in  1823,  he  was  compelled  to  seek  rest  in 
England.  And  now  over  a  thousand  scholars  were 
in  his  school,  seven  hundred  of  whom  could  read. 
He  had  four  hundred  and  fifty  communicants,  and 
they  had  their  own  missionary  society.  And  when 
it  pleased  God  that  seven  years  of  work  should  close 
with  his  burial  at  sea,  Sara  Bickersteth, — the  first  of 
her  nation  to  taste  the  grace  of  God,  his  own  child  in 


254  THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

the  faith, — watched  by  his  berth,  read  to  him  the 
twenty-third  Psalm  and  prayed  beside  him,  heard 
his  dying  words  and  closed  his  dying  eyes.  And  so, 
dying,  like  Mills  and  Hunt,  at  thirty-five,  this  man  in 
seven  years,  and  amid  a  community  as  hopelessly 
ignorant  and  unimpressible  as  ever  a  missionary  con¬ 
fronted,  actually  laid  the  basis  of  a  Christian  state, 
where,  thirty  years  after  his  death,  Bishop  Vidal  con¬ 
firmed  three  thousand  candidates,  and  where,  in  later 
years,  parishes  with  native  pastors,  a  college  and  a 
vigorous  life  of  its  own,  pushed  missions  into  the 
interior  and  along  the  Niger. 

Tyndall  has  called  attention  to  the  wonders  of 
crystallization.  “  Looking  into  this  solution  of  com¬ 
mon  sulphate  of  soda,  mentally,  we  see  the  molecules, 
like  disciplined  squadrons  under  a  governing  eye, 
arranging  themselves  into  battalions,  gathering  round 
distinct  centres  and  forming  themselves  into  solid 
masses  which,  after  a  time,  assume  the  visible  shape 
of  this  crystal.”  But  there  is  something  far  tran¬ 
scending  this  in  wonders,  when,  out  of  a  community 
such  as  Johnson  found  at  Sierra  Leone,  or  Hunt  at 
Fiji  Islands,  a  well-ordered  Christian  state  is  organ¬ 
ized.  A  secret,  unseen,  mysterious  power,  which 
none  can  define  or  describe,  is  at  work.  Around  the 
name  of  Jesus  the  disorderly  and  confused  elements 
of  a  moral  chaos  arrange  themselves  in  symmetry 
and  beauty,  and  society  becomes  crystalline  and 
reflects  the  glory  of  God. 

The  New  Zealand  Converts. 

The  New  Zealanders  were  alike  objects  of  fear 
and  hate,  when  the  devoted  Marsden  pleaded  their 
cause  with  the  Church  Missionary  Society  and  laid 
the  basis  of  one  of  the  most  successful  missions  of 
the  modern  era.  They  were  perpetually  at  war,  and 
with  brutal  murders  revenged  the  treachery  and  vio¬ 
lence  of  white  men  who  touched  at  their  shores. 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


255 


But  while  Samuel  Marsden  was  yet  at  New  South 
Wales,  he  met  many  from  these  islands  who  visited 
Paramatta,  and  he  detected  in  them  something  which 
promised  a  nobler  life.  When  the  mission  was  first 
projected,  no  clergyman  could  be  found  ready  for  an 
enterprise  so  heroic;  and  two  skilled  mechanics 
undertook  to  win  a  way  for  the  gospel  by  the  arts  of 
civilization.  At  the  end  of  thirty  years’  toil,  Mars¬ 
den  declared  that  civilization  is  not  necessary  before 
Christianity,  but  will  be  found  to  follow  Christianity 
more  easily  than  Christianity  to  follow  civilization ; 
and,  he  added,  that  with  all  its  cannibalism  and  idol¬ 
atry,  New  Zealand  would  yet  set  an  example  of 
Christianity  to  some  nations  then  before  her  in  point 
of  civilization. 

Certain  outrages  by  a  sea  captain  at  Whangaroa 
Harbour  had  provoked  horrible  retaliation  on  the  part 
of  the  natives,  and  this  led  to  subsequent  acts  of 
vengeance  on  the  part  of  a  whaling  vessel.  The  ex¬ 
citement  ensuing  postponed  missionary  effort;  but 
at  length,  the  two  mechanics  ventured  to  New 
Zealand  and  were  well  received.  Marsden  now 
yearned  to  follow  in  person,  but  could  not  find  a 
ship  captain  to  take  him  at  a  less  cost  than  six  hun¬ 
dred  pounds  for  the  risk;  so  he  bought  a  brig  and 
set  sail,  landing  on  those  shores  unarmed,  and  with 
but  one  companion. 

As  he  lay  awake  that  first  night,  excited  by  the 
awful  environment  of  paganism  and  cannibalism,  he 
saw  above  him  those  brilliant  constellations,  the 
Southern  Cross  and  the  Southern  Crown,  which 
served  to  remind  him  of  One  who  bore  the  cross  for 
all  men  and  who  would  yet  wear  the  crown  of  uni¬ 
versal  empire.  And  on  the  Christmas-day  which 
soon  followed  he  preached  the  first  sermon  in  New 
Zealand,  using  a  native  interpreter.  His  text  was, 
“  Behold  I  bring  you  glad  tidings  of  great  joy;”  and 
around  him  were  gathered  a  motley  group  of  men 
and  women  and  children  and  chiefs.  For  years  no 


256 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


converts  crowned  the  work,  though  the  natives 
seemed  to  desire  the  Pakehas,  or  Englishmen,  to  set¬ 
tle  among  them;  and  ventured  to  assure  Marsden 
that  they  would  not  be  killed  and  eaten,  as  they  were 
such  salt  eaters  that  their  flesh  was  less  savoury  than 
that  of  the  Maoris — a  statement  which  did  not  dimin¬ 
ish  the  quantity  of  salt  eaten  by  the  English.  At 
length  the  spirit  of  religious  inquiry  was  awakened, 
and  truth  found  such  root  and  room  to  grow  that 
even  chiefs  began  to  be  baptized.  And  when  Mars¬ 
den  made  his  sixth  visit,  the  east  and  west  shores  of 
the  bay  where  he  landed  presented  one  of  those 
strange  and  eloquent  contrasts  often  seen  where  the 
gospel  has  won  a  partial  victory.  On  one  side,  naked 
savages,  their  hands  red  with  blood,  yelling  like  de¬ 
mons,  and  the  moans  of  the  wounded  and  dying: 
on  the  other  side,  a  peaceful  community,  decently 
clad,  assembled  for  worship,  and  using  devoutly  the 
Church  service  printed  in  their  own  tongue.  Here 
at  one  glance  were  the  anticipations  of  heaven  and 
hell — the  misery  and  wretchedness  of  paganism  con¬ 
fronting  Christianity  with  its  trees  of  righteousness 
and  plants  of  godliness.  When,  at  seventy-two,  the 
patriarchal  missionary  paid  his  last  visit,  his  coming 
was  the  signal  for  ecstatic  delight.  In  his  arm-chair 
before  the  mission  house,  he  received  the  thousands 
who  from  great  distances  thronged  to  do  him  honour ; 
and  on  re-embarking  they  bore  him  on  their  shoul¬ 
ders  six  miles  to  the  shore.  Since  then,  when,  on  the 
unconscious  verge  of  another  sea  on  whose  unknown 
waters  he  was  so  soon  to  set  sail,  the  apostle  of  New 
Zealand  lifted  his  hands  in  a  farewell  benediction — 
since  then,  fifteen  thousand  native  Christians  bear 
witness  that  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  the 
cannibal  islands  on  Christmas-day,  1814,  was  not  in 
vain.  Three  years  after  Marsden’s  death  Bishop 
Selwyn  reported  a  whole  nation  of  pagans  converted 
to  the  faith. 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES . 


257 


The  Ferocious  Cannibals  of  Fiji. 

We  have  before  referred  to  the  atrocious  cannibals 
of  Fiji,  the  slaves  of  a  religion  of  organized  cruelty, 
that  fattens  on  blood,  crushes  conscience,  and  kills 
sensibility  as  a  red-hot  iron  burns  out  the  very  eye-ball. 
For  a  hardened  Fijian  to  be  brought  to  tenderness  of 
heart  and  sensitiveness  of  conscience  is  as  much  a 
miracle  as  to  replace  a  maimed  limb  or  restore  a 
withered  arm.  Hunt  saw  two  conversions  wrought 
at  Viwa.  One  from  paganism  as  an  idolatrous  system, 
to  the  Christian  faith ;  that  was  wonderful,  like  open¬ 
ing  a  blind  eye  or  straightening  a  crooked  form. 
But  the  other  was  more  marvellous :  it  was  a  conver¬ 
sion  from  the  love  and  guilt  and  power  of  sin  to  God 
and  love  of  godliness.  It  was  comparatively  easy  to 
secure  a  profession  of  Christianity;  but  this  was  like 
a  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

When  this  Wesleyan  farmer  saw  in  these  pagan 
monsters  penitence  for  sin  as  sin,  deep  conviction  of 
guilt  and  agonies  of  godly  sorrow ;  when  for  days  and 
nights  together  they  were  racked  with  wildest  grief 
until  from  sheer  exhaustion  they  fainted,  and  recov¬ 
ered  only  to  swoon  again  after  another  agony  of 
prayer,  he  said,  this  is  the  work  of  God. 

John  Hunt  goes  on  his  circuits  of  a  hundred  miles 
a  month,  telling  Christ’s  story,  forming  schools  to 
train  converts  for  teachers,  ‘ *  turning  care  into 
prayer,”  working  hard  on  his  Fiji  New  Testament. 
Who  can  tell  what  that  lonely  servant  of  God  had  to 
overcome  in  facing  hostile,  cruel  chiefs  without 
force  or  threat,  mastering  a  difficult  tongue  without 
grammar  or  lexicon,  teaching  such  savages  when 
their  pagan  tongue  supplied  no  fit  terms  to  convey 
divine  thoughts! 

God  had  much  people  even  there,  and  when  His  fit 
and  full  time  came  He  knew  how  to  lead  them  out. 
The  priests  predicted  an  awful  drought  as  the  judg¬ 
ment  of  the  gods  on  the  sin  of  those  who  confessed 


258 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


Jesus;  but  the  failure  of  the  prophecy  shook  popular 
faith  in  the  pagan  idols.  The  Queen  of  Viwa,  and 
the  u  Napoleon  ”  of  Fiji,  Verani,  became  Christians, — 
and  Verani  a  preacher  and  winner  of  thousands  of 
souls. 

This  lesson  of  God’s  power  has  been  taught  us,  re¬ 
peatedly,  in  the  new  chapters  of  the  Acts.  The  story 
of  J ohn  Hunt  in  the  Fiji  Group  is  the  all-convincing 
example  and  illustration.  When  he  went  there  in 
1838,  the  moral  aspect  of  those  hundred  islands  was 
as  hideous  as  their  material  aspect  was  lovely.  If 
nature  had  lavished  her  bounties  and  beauties  so  that 
every  prospect  was  pleasing,  how  vile  and  repulsive 
was  man.  Treachery  and  ferocity,  raging  passion 
and  devilish  cruelty,  were  branded  on  the  very  faces 
of  the  Fijians.  One  who  had  shuddered  at  the  sight 
has  sought  to  paint  the  awful  portrait:  “  The  fore¬ 
head  filled  with  wrinkles;  the  large  nostrils  distended 
and  fairly  smoking;  the  staring  eyeballs  red,  and 
gleaming  with  terrible  flashings ;  the  mouth  distended 
into  murderous  and  disdainful  grin;  the  whole  body 
quivering  with  excitement;  every  muscle  strained, 
and  the  clenched  fist  eager  to  bathe  itself  in  the  blood 
of  him  who  has  roused  this  demon  of  fury.” 

If  one  could  dip  his  pen  in  the  molten  brimstone 
of  hell’s  fiery  lake,  he  could  still  write  no  just 
account  of  the  condition  of  the  Fijians  fifty  years  ago. 
Two  awful  forms  of  crime  stood  like  gates  of  hell  to 
let  in  demons  and  shut  out  gospel  heralds.  Of  all 
children  born  at  least  two-thirds  were  killed  at  birth, 
and  to  make  sure  of  their  death  there  was  a  system 
of  organized  destruction,  and  every  village  had  its 
authorized  executioner,  to  repeat  the  tragedy  of 
Bethlehem’s  babes.  Of  course,  infanticide  and  par¬ 
ricide  go  together;  and  so  if  the  parents  did  not 
spare  their  offspring,  neither  did  the  offspring  spare 
the  parents,  but  despatched  them  when  old  or  feeble. 

Cannibalism, — the  most  atrocious  form  of  pagan 
ferocity,  that  breaks  the  whole  decalogue  at  once,  the 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


259 


climax  of  theft,  sensuality  and  murder, — was  not  only 
a  custom,  but  a  sacred  religious  rite,  and  the  chil¬ 
dren  that  were  allowed  to  live,  were  trained  to  dishon¬ 
our  and  devour  the  human  form  divine.  Mothers 
gave  their  babes  a  taste  of  the  horrible  feast,  as  a 
beast  her  cubs,  to  excite  a  relish  for  the  horrid  meal ; 
and  not  only  dead  bodies,  but  living  captives,  were 
given  over  to  young  children  as  playthings  on  which 
to  practise  for  sport  the  art  of  mutilation  and  dissec¬ 
tion.  It  became  a  pride  to  Fijian  chiefs  to  boast  of  the 
number  of  human  bodies  they  had  eaten;  and  Ra 
Undreundu’s  pile  of  stones,  in  which  each  stone 
stood  for  one  such  victim,  contained  nine  hundred ! 
The  Fijian  word  for  corpse ,  “  vakalu,”  suggests  also 
the  idea  of  a  meal,  as  the  Greek  word  for  rejoicing 
suggests  a  banquet  (xaPa)»  ^11  the  life  of  these  people, 
civil  and  religious,  was  inwrought  with  the  destroy¬ 
ing  and  devouring  of  helpless  victims.  A  building 
of  a  hut,  a  launching  of  a  canoe,  a  burying  of  the 
dead,  and  events  of  far  less  moment,  were  the  signals 
for  a  banquet  on  human  flesh.  And  if  the  plump 
form  of  a  favourite  wife,  or  the  tender  flesh  of  a  lit¬ 
tle  child  promised  an  unusual  delicacy,  without  com¬ 
punction  or  hesitation  the  husband  and  father  called 
his  friends  to  a  feast  on  the  dainty  morsel ! 

It  was  among  such  a  people  that  the  ploughboy  of 
Lincolnshire  landed  in  1838.  He  soon  found  that 
the  half  of  the  inhuman  cruelty  and  devilish 
butchery  of  this  people  had  never  been  told  him; 
and  yet  he  went  to  Somosomo,  whose  people  were 
the  worst  of  all.  When  the  youngest  son  of  the 
King  Tuithakau  was  lost  at  sea,  sixteen  women  were 
strangled  and  then  burned  in  front  of  the  mission- 
house,  notwithstanding  Mr.  Hunt’s  entreaties  that 
they  should  be  spared;  and  when,  some  months  after, 
eleven  men  were  dragged  by  ropes  to  be  roasted  in 
the  ovens,  these  demons,  who  were  preparing  the 
feast,  threatened  to  burn  down  the  missionary’s 
house,  because  his  wife  closed  and  blinded  the 


260 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


windows  to  shut  out  the  sickening  sight  and  smell 
of  burning  bodies ! 

Not  one  Christian  among  a  hundred  would  have 
counselled  Hunt  to  attempt  work  among  such  incar¬ 
nate  monsters,  when  the  king  himself  forbade  his 
subjects  under  pain  of  death  to  “lotu”  or  profess 
the  new  faith,  and  when  even  the  readiness  to  con¬ 
fess  Christ  seemed  to  be  due  to  mere  greed  of  gain 
in  cutlery  and,  firearms.  Captain  Wilkes  of  the 
American  navy,  in  1840,  witnessed  the  trials  of  their 
seemingly  hopeless  work,  and  besought  them  at 
least  to  let  him  carry  them  to  a  more  hopeful  field; 
but  John  Hunt  had  heard  a  divine  voice — 4 4  Fear 
not,  for  I  have  much  people  in  these  islands  ” — and 
he  stayed.  Three  years  at  Somosomo  sufficed  so  to 
change  the  horrid  life  about  him  that  at  least  a 
bloodless  war  was  waged,  a  large  canoe  launched 
and  a  great  feast  held  for  weeks  without  one  human 
sacrifice ;  and  this  last  with  no  direct  interference  of 
the  missionary. 

The  last  six  years  of  John  Hunt’s  short  career  of 
ten,  were  spent  at  Viwa,  near  Mbau,  the  head  centre 
of  Fiji  power.  King  Thakombau,  “  the  butcher  of 
his  people,”  was  a  fierce  foe,  and  his  wars  and 
hostility  to  the  missionary  seemed  to  make  all  suc¬ 
cess  hopeless — yet  here  again  the  patience  of  God’s 
saints  was  rewarded.  Even  among  this  city  of 
demons,  God  had  much  people. 

The  Land  of  the  Brahman. 

Even  India,  the  Malakoff  of  heathenism,  is  not 
deficient  in  signs  of  divine  power  in  furnishing  her 
quota  of  converts  and  martyrs.  The  greater  part  of 
a  century  has  passed  since  the  directors  of  the  Brit¬ 
ish  East  India  Company  put  on  record  their  convic¬ 
tion  that  “  the  sending  of  Christian  missionaries  into 
our  Eastern  possessions  is  the  maddest,  most  expen¬ 
sive,  most  unwarranted  project  that  was  ever  pro- 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES . 


261 


posed  by  a  lunatic  enthusiast.’*  No  arraignment  of 
the  entire  principle  and  policy  of  modern  missions  to 
the  Hindus  could  have  been  more  sarcastically 
severe.  Observe  the  terms,  which  indirectly  accuse 
those  who  favoured  and  furthered  such  a  project,  as 
not  only  lacking  good  sense,  adequate  justification, 
or  business  economy,  but  as  enthusiasts,  madmen  and 
lunatics!  But,  what  is  worse — at  that  time,  now 
more  than  eighty-five  years  ago, — this  outrageous 
assault  upon  obedience  to  our  Lord’s  command  was 
not  repudiated  by  the  great  body  even  of  English 
Christians,  and  found  positive  support  even  among 
members  of  parliament  and  ecclesiastical  dignitaries. 
A  few  disciples,  full  of  faith  and  prayer,  dared,  not¬ 
withstanding  all  this  violent  opposition,  to  send  mes¬ 
sengers  and  give  money  for  this  insane  purpose. 

And  now  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  popular 
sentiment  has  undergone  such  a  complete  revolution 
that  even  the  secular  newspaper  has  become  the 
advocate  and  vindicator  of  missions  to  India.  The 
testimony  of  such  men  as  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  Sir  Will¬ 
iam  Muir,  Sir  Monier  Momer  Williams,  Sir  Herbert 
Edwardes,  Max  Muller,  Sir  Richard  Temple,  Sir 
Donald  McLeod,  Sir  William  Hill,  Lord  John  Law¬ 
rence,  the  Earl  of  Northbrook,  Hon.  W.  E.  Baxter, 
and  a  host  of  others,  who  have  had  ample  time  and 
large  facility  for  forming  an  intelligent  judgment, 
have  left  on  record  words  so  weighty  that,  in  compari¬ 
son,  all  sneers  or  charges  against  missions  in  India 
become  light  and  frivolous,  if  not  [contemptible  and 
dishonest.  Such  men  as  these,  who  could  be  misled 
neither  by  ignorance  nor  motives  of  policy,  have 
borne  singularly  unanimous  witness  to  the  number 
and  worth  of  native  converts;  and  to  something  even 
more  important — the  fact,  that  Christianity  is  form¬ 
ing  a  new  nation  in  the  land  of  the  Brahman ;  that 
while  every  other  faith  is  decaying,  this  divine  gos¬ 
pel  is  alone  beginning  to  run  its  course;  that  the 
changes  taking  place  under  the  benign  influence  of 


262 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Christianity  are,  for  extent  and  rapidity  of  effect,  far 
more  extraordinary  than  anything  witnessed  in 
modern  Europe  by  us  or  our  fathers.  Shortly  since, 
Sir  Rivers  Thompson,  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Ben¬ 
gal,  testified  that  ‘  6  Christian  missionaries  have  done 
more  real  and  lasting  good  than  all  other  agencies 
combined.* *  And  to  all  this  testimony  there  still 
remains  to  be  added,  before  an  intelligent  verdict 
can  be  made  up,  the  testimony  of  the  native  Hindus 
themselves — not  Ganga  Dhar,  Abdul  Messeh,  Tulsi 
Paul,  Narayan  Sheshadri,  Keshub  Chunder  Sen  and 
others  like  them  who  have  been  converts  or  open 
advocates  of  Christianity,  but  the  native  rajahs  and 
princes;  from  the  Rajah  of  Tanjore,  who  built  a  monu¬ 
ment  to  Schwartz,  down  to  the  first  Prince  of  Travan- 
core,  who  in  1874,  publicly  said: 

“  Marvellous  has  been  the  effect  of  Christianity  in 
the  moral  moulding  and  leavening  of  Europe.  I  am 
not  a  Christian;  I  do  not  accept  the  cardinal  tenets 
of  Christianity  as  they  concern  man  in  the  next 
world;  but  I  accept  Christian  ethics  in  their  en¬ 
tirety.  I  have  the  highest  admiration  for  them.** 
Four  years  before  this,  a  learned  Brahman  had 
candidly  said:  “Where  did  the  English-speaking 
people  get  all  their  intelligence,  and  energy,  and 
cleverness  and  power  ?  It  is  their  Bible  that  gives  it 
to  them.  And  now  they  bring  it  to  us  and  say: 

6  This  is  what  raised  us.  Take  it  and  raise  your¬ 
selves!’  They  do  not  force  it  upon  us,  as  the 
Mohammedans  did  their  Koran,  but  they  bring  it  in 
love,  and  translate  it  into  our  languages  and  lay  it 
before  us,  and  say,  ‘  Look  at  it,  read  it,  examine  it, 
and  see  if  it  is  not  good.’  Of  one  thing  I  am  con¬ 
vinced,— do  what  we  will,  oppose  as  we  may,  it  is  the 
Christian's  Bible  that  will ,  sooner  or  later ,  work  the 
regeneration  of  this  land'' 

India  has  presented  perhaps  the  most  formidable 
barriers  ever  encountered  in  any  of  our  mission 
fields.  The  subtlety  and  acumen  of  the  Brahmanic 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES.  263 

priesthood,  and  their  power  over  the  superstitious 
and  ignorant  common  folk,  the  rigid  restraints  of 
caste — itself  a  wall  of  ice,  mountain  high  against  the 
approach  of  the  gospel,  and  a  system  of  frigid  immo¬ 
bility  which,  like  a  vast  polar  zone  of  frost,  locks  in 
eternal  winter  the  whole  society  it  girdles — the  long* 
sway  of  that  religious  faith  which  is  one  of  the  purest 
and  best  of  Oriental  religions,  notwithstanding  its 
practical  corruptions — these  are  some  of  the  hin¬ 
drances  Christian  missions  have  had  to  meet.  And 
yet  notwithstanding  all,  the  gospel  is  slowly  razing 
these  high  walls,  undermining  these  strongholds,  and, 
like  the  resistless  summer  sun,  melting  these  ice 
castles. 

The  seraphic  Henry  Martyn,  eighty  years  ago  was 
so  horror-struck  at  the  gross  idolatries  and  nameless 
atrocities  connected  with  the  pagodas  and  pageants 
of  Juggernath,  and  the  blazing  fires  of  the  suttee, 
that  his  exquisite  sensibilities  shrank  back  in  revolt 
at  the  sight,  and  he  said,  “  I  shivered  as  if  standing, 
as  it  were,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  hell.  The  fiends 
of  darkness  seem  to  sit  in  sullen  repose  in  this  land!  ” 
Now  ruined  pagodas  have  become  Christian  temples, 
and  where  demons  were  once  worshipped,  prayer 
ascends  to  Him  who  cast  out  demons  with  His  word. 

Dr.  John  Wilson,  of  Bombay,  who  spent  nearly  a 
half  century  in  India,  twenty  years  ago,  “tersely 
catalogued  the  bloodless  triumphs  that  had  been 
won  ”  on  that  field,  where  Carey  led  the  way  a  century 
ago.  That  catalogue  we  venture  to  reproduce  entire 
from  the  masterly  work  of  his  eminent  biographer.* 

Horrors  and  Iniquities  of  hidia  Removed  by  Govern - 

me?it . 

I.  Murder  of  Parents. 

(a)  By  Suttee. 

(< b )  By  exposure  on  the  banks  of  rivers. 

(c)  By  burial  alive.  Case  in  Joudhpore  territory,  i860. 


•  “  Life  of  John  Wilson,”  by  George  Smith,  LL.D.,  p.  352. 


264 


THE  NE IV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


II.  Murder  of  Children. 

(a)  By  dedication  to  the  Ganges,  there  to  be  devoured  by  crocodiles. 

( b )  By  Rajpoot  infanticide,  West  of  India,  Punjab,  East  of  India. 

III.  Human  Sacrifices. 

(a)  Temple  sacrifices. 

( b )  By  wild  tribes — Meriahs  of  the  Khonds. 

IV.  Suicide. 

(a)  Crushing  by  idol  cars. 

( b )  Devotees  drowning  themselves  in  rivers. 

(<:)  Devotees  casting  themselves  from  precipices. 

( d )  Leaping  into  wells — widows. 

( e )  By  Traga. 

V.  Voluntary  Torment. 

(a)  By  hook-swinging. 

( b )  By  thigh-piercing. 

( c )  By  tongue -extraction. 

(d)  By  falling  on  knives. 

( e )  By  austerities. 

VI.  Involuntary  Torment. 

(a)  Barbarous  executions. 

( b )  Mutilation  of  criminals. 

(c)  Extraction  of  evidence  by  torment. 

( d )  Bloody  and  injurious  ordeals.  J 

( e )  Cutting  off  the  noses  of  women. 

VII.  Slavery. 

(a)  Hereditary  predial  slavery. 

(b)  Domestic  slavery. 

(c)  Importation  of  slaves  from  Africa. 

VIII.  Extortions. 

(a)  By  Dharana. 

( b )  By  Traga. 

IX.  Religious  Intolerance. 

(a)  Prevention  of  Propagation  of  Christianity. 

(£)  Calling  upon  Christian  soldiers  to  fire  salutes  at  heathen  festivals, 
etc. 

(r)  Saluting  gods  on  official  papers. 

( d )  Managing  affairs  of  idol  temples. 

K.  Support  of  Caste  by  Law. 

(a)  Exclusion  of  low  castes  from  offices. 

I b )  Exemption  of  high  castes  from  appearing  to  give  evidence. 

(r)  Disparagement  of  low  caste. 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


265 


There  are  reasons  to  believe  that  thousands  even 
in  India  believe,  but,  like  the  Pharisees  of  old,  do  not 
confess  Christ  lest  they  be  put  out  of  the  synagogue. 
Observers  who  have  had  rare  opportunities  to  note 
the  facts  tell  us  that  secret  believers  are  rapidly  mul¬ 
tiplying;  and  that  for  every  avowed  convert  there 
are  hundreds  who,  for  fear  of  kin  and  caste,  of  ostra¬ 
cism  and  actual  starvation,  dare  not  make  such 
avowal,  but  are  ready  when  the  break  shall  come. 
So  said  “The  Indian  Witness”  in  1889. 

The  Slaves  of  Jamaica. 

Who  can  read  the  story  of  Jamaica,  and  doubt  the 
power  of  the  gospel  over  even  the  most  degraded  negro 
slaves.  When  the  island  was  formally  ceded  to  Great 
Britain  by  the  treaty  of  Madrid  in  1670,  the  place  of 
the  native  Indians  was  taken  by  Africans,  imported 
by  Spaniards,  and  during  the  eighteenth  century  over 
half  a  million  were  brought  over  to  suffer  as  the  heirs 
of  Canaan’s  curse.  The  history  of  these  slaves,  their 
poverty,  misery,  degradation,  wretchedness,  is  among 
the  blackest  annals  of  the  race ;  and  when  the  facts 
became  known  in  Great  Britain,  the  popular  heart  of 
English  freemen  demanded  their  liberation.  On 
August  1,  1834,  the  emancipation  began  to  take  effect 
in  the  freedom  of  the  children  of  the  slave  families; 
but  the  midnight  of  July  31,  1838,  was  to  usher  in 
the  complete  liberation  of  the  whole  slave  com¬ 
munity;  and  on  that  night,  led  on  by  William  Knibb 
and  James  Philippo,  fourteen  thousand  adult  slaves 
and  five  thousand  children  joined  in  prayer  to  God  as 
they  waited  and  watched  for  the  hour  of  twelve, 
midnight,  which  was  to  terminate  the  life  of  slavery 
in  Jamaica;  and  as  Rev.  J.  J.  Fuller  says,  who 
was  himself  a  child  of  slavery  and  there  present, 
every  coloured  man  on  the  Island  was  on  his  knees 
that  night. 

A  mahogany  coffin  had  been  made,  polished  and 


266 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


fitted  by  the  carpenters  and  cabinet-makers  of 
this  slave  population,  and,  as  became  the  great 
occasion,  a  grave  was  dug.  Into  that  coffin  they 
crowded  all  the  various  relics  and  remnants  of  their 
previous  bondage  and  sorrow.  The  whips,  the 
torture-irons,  the  branding-irons,  the  coarse  frocks, 
and  shirts,  and  great  hat,  fragments  of  the  tread¬ 
mill,  the  handcuffs — whatever  was  the  sign  and 
badge  of  seventy-eight  years  of  thraldom — they 
placed  in  the  coffin  and  screwed  down  the  lid.  As  the 
bell  began  to  toll  for  midnight,  the  voice  of  Knibb  was 
heard,  4  ‘The  monster  is  dying — is  dying” — until,  when 
the  last  stroke  sounded  from  the  belfry,  Mr.  Knibb 
cried — “  The  monster  is  dead!  Let  us  bury  him  out 
of  sight  forever !”  and  the  coffin  was  lowered  into 
its  grave ;  and  then  the  whole  of  that  throng  of  thou¬ 
sands  celebrated  their  redemption  from  thraldom  by 
singing  the  doxology !  This  was  the  way  these  black 
slaves  took  vengeance  on  their  former  masters — not 
by  deeds  of  violence,  lust,  rapine,  murder;  but  by 
burying  the  remnants  of  their  long  bondage  and 
the  remembrance  of  their  great  wrongs,  in  the  grave 
of  oblivion.  Where  did  those  debased  Africans  learn 
such  magnanimous  love,  except  of  Him  whose  greatest 
miracle  was  His  dying  prayer,  “  Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do !  ” 

This  is  not  the  end  of  this  story.  To-day  there  is 
not  on  the  island  among  all  the  different  bodies  one 
church  dependent  on  outside  help :  they  all  support 
themselves,  and  a  large  portion  of  them  have  for 
pastors  the  sons  of  former  slaves.  They  have  also 
their  own  independent  missionary  society,  as  well  as 
schools,  hign  schools,  grammar  schools,  etc. 

On  the  island  to-day  there  are  more  than  two 
hundred  and  seventy  Baptist  churches  alone,  seventy 
of  which  are  ministered  to  by  young  men  trained  in 
the  colleges  of  Jamaica,  children  of  former  slaves; 
and  the  Presbyterians,  Wesleyans  and  Episcopalians 
have  their  congregations  beside.  Here,  within  a  lit- 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


267 


tie  more  than  a  half  century,  the  gospel  has  not  only 
broken  slave  bonds,  but  has  developed  former  slaves 
into  a  Christian  community  of  freemen  of  the  Lord, 
with  Christian  institutions.  Folly  and  vice,  idolatry 
and  witchcraft,  ignorance  and  superstition,  were  the 
thick  growths  that  covered  the  soil  half  a  century 
since,  where  now  are  the  trees  of  righteousness,  self- 
sustaining  and  self-propagating  churches  of  coloured 
people,  ministered  to  in  many  cases  by  sons  of  those 
who  were  formerly  enthralled  in  slavery.  These 
preachers,  developed  from  a  former  slave  popula¬ 
tion,  side  by  side  with  their  white  brethren  main¬ 
tain  the  gospel  with  equal  success.  To  see  the 
difference  which  the  gospel  can  make,  one  needs 
only  to  contrast  Jamaica  with  Hayti. 

Old  Calabar. 

When  Rev.  J.  J.  Fuller,  to  whom  already  refer¬ 
ence  has  been  made,  left  his  native  island  of  Jamaica 
to  follow  his  father  in  a  mission  on  the  west  coast  of 
Africa,  he  landed  in  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  and  the 
Bight  of  Biafra.  This  was  in  1845.  He  found 
neither  Bible  nor  book,  not  even  written  language ; 
none  of  the  people  had  ever  heard  the  name  which 
brings  salvation.  There  was  a  community  of  naked, 
degraded,  depraved,  ignorant  savages,  and  human 
sacrifices  were  the  natural  apex  to  a  pyramid  of 
cruelties,  which  were  not  only  common,  but  sanc¬ 
tioned  and  supported  by  superstitions  which  claimed 
the  rank  of  religion.  These  horrid  and  revolting 
customs  were  simply  built  into  the  whole  structure 
of  society,  like  pillars  into  the  temple  they  uphold. 
Cruelty  was  a  part  of  the  education  of  the  people, 
and  a  very  efficient  school  it  was  in  vice  and  crime ! 

The  people  had  faith  in  a  future  life,  but  even  that 
faith  only  stimulated  cruelty;  for  it  led  to  the  culti¬ 
vation  of  customs  supposed  to  be  a  protection  alike 
to  the  dead  and  the  living.  If  anybody  died,  somebody 


268  THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 

else  was  responsible ;  accusation  followed,  and  trial  for 
witchcraft  by  tests  which  were  equally  fatal  for  the  in-  • 
nocent  and  the  guilty.  Poison  was  the  ordeal  that  fol¬ 
lowed  accusation.  The  living  infant  was  buried  with 
the  dead  mother ;  and  if  the  mother  had  borne  twins, 
she  was  beaten  to  death  and  the  babes  were  put  out 
of  the  way;  and  so  a  curse  was  supposed  to  be  lifted 
from  the  land.  A  king’s  death  meant  a  wholesale 
burial  alive  of  men  and  women  who  were  put  into  the 
royal  grave.  Mr.  Fuller,  during  forty-five  years  of 
personal  ministry,  witnessed  the  great  transformation. 

A  people  without  God  or  hope  shortly  began  to  feel 
after  God,  and  a  new  faith  began  to  dawn  over  their 
horizon.  Their  language  was  put  in  written  form. 
Alfred  Saker  and  the  Presbyterian  missionaries  trans¬ 
lated  the  whole  Bible  for  them ;  and  now  they  have 
churches,  schools  and  a  native  ministry.  The  people 
are  learning  to  read  and  write,  and  coming  up  to  the 
higher  plane  of  enlightenment.  Belief  in  witchcraft 
is  dead;  the  ordeal  of  the  Calabar  bean,  the  massa¬ 
cre  of  slaves,  and  other  like  absurd  and  cruel  cus¬ 
toms  of  centuries,  have  disappeared. 

Take  one  contrast:  In  1845,  one  of  the  kings  of 
old  Calabar  died.  Into  his  grave,  according  to  long- 
established  custom,  many  living  people  were  put  to 
die  beside  the  dead.  To-day  a  grandson  of  that  buried 
chief  is  an  elder  in  a  Presbyterian  church ;  and  every 
morning,  with  the  open  Bible  in  his  hand,  he  leads 
his  household  in  family  worship. 

Mr.  Fuller  tells  of  his  going  into  the  Cameroons, 
and  how  in  the  morning,  looking  across  the  river  he 
saw  many  canoes  with  people  dressed  up  in  all  their 
war  dresses,  and  their  spears  and  swords  were  bran¬ 
dished  in  the  sun.  They  had  their  war  caps  upon 
their  heads.  He  took  his  glass  and  looked,  and  found 
that  the  decoration  on  the  bows  of  all  those  canoes 
was  nothing  else  but  human  heads.  He  went  up  to 
the  chief  and  said  to  him,  “What  do  you  do  such 
cruel  deeds  for?”  He  looked  very  much  astonished 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


2G9 


that  any  one  should  ask  him  such  a  question,  and 
said,  “What  deeds?”  Pointing  across  the  river,  Mr. 
Fuller  said,  “Look,  yonder.  What  about  that  row 
of  human  heads  on  your  canoe?  Why  do  you  do 
such  cruel  things  ?  They  are  not  right.”  The  chief 
replied:  “You  people  come  into  this  country  and 
live  here  and  you  claim  to  be  a  good  people,  and  that 
is  true  enough ;  but  do  you  tell  me  that  when  I  die 
my  sons  are  going  to  put  me  into  an  empty  grave 
alone  and  nobody  with  me?”  When  Mr.  Fuller  re¬ 
plied  “Yes,”  he  looked  at  him  and  said,  “You  are  a 
fool.”  Then  all  his  sons  came  up  directly  and  said, 
“What  is  the  matter,  father?”  And  he  repeated 
what  he  had  said  to  Mr.  Fuller:  “This  man  who 
has  come  to  live  in  this  country  says  that  when  I  die 
you  boys  will  put  me  into  an  empty  grave,  alone, 
with  no  one  with  me,”  and  they  looked  at  Mr.  Fuller 
and  grinned  their  savage  grin,  and  then  turned  away 
and  said,  “  Father,  do  not  believe  him.  He  is  a  fool, 
and  he  is  a  foreigner.  What  does  he  know?  Let 
him  alone.”  And  yet  mark  it!  That  same  chief 
lived  on  until  the  old  custom  of  burying  living  people 
with  the  dead  was  completely  abolished.  In  his 
town,  about  fifty  yards  from  his  own  house,  stood  a 
little  chapel,  and  the  preacher  in  that  chapel  was 
none  other  than  one  of  his  sons,  who  was  preaching 
the  gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ! 

If  God,  in  such  a  short  time,  can  produce  such  a 
marvellous  change,  surely  prayers  for  missions,  and 
for  the  extension  of  Christ’s  kingdom  in  the  world, 
have  abundant  proof  that  they  are  being  answered  of 
God.  Think  of  the  present  condition  of  the  people, 
and  then  of  what  was  their  former  state,  when  this 
missionary  first  met  them  in  their  degradation  as 
naked  savages.  A  letter  was  recently  received  from 
the  Church  in  Cameroons,  reporting  that  they  had 
built  a  chapel  for  themselves  that  will  seat  one  thou¬ 
sand  people,  and  that  the  membership  of  that  one 
church  had  grown  to  seven  hundred;  also  that  they 


270 


THE  NE IV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


had  collected  for  themselves  among  their  own  people 
one  thousand  pounds,  and  had  established  fifteen 
different  stations  in  different  parts  of  the  country 
within  a  year  or  two,  in  order  to  spread  the  gospel 
among  their  own  tribe.  Africa,  with  all  her  degra¬ 
dation  and  ignorance,  desires  to  have  the  gospel,  and 
if  it  is  given  to  this  degraded  people  they,  of  them¬ 
selves,  in  their  own  country,  will  spread  that  gospel. 
The  time  will  come,  and  Mr.  Fuller  believes  that  it 
is  not  far  off,  when  the  Dark  Continent  will  emerge 
from  her  degradation  and  darkness.  Fifty  years  ago, 
up  the  Congo  River,  no  one  had  ever  heard  the  gos¬ 
pel,  and  it  was  looked  upon  as  a  hard  soil  to  work ; 
but  to-day  the  Scripture  is  being  translated  into  their 
own  tongue,  their  young  men  are  being  taught  to 
read  the  Bible,  Christian  churches  are  being  formed, 
and  some  of  the  cruelties  that  the  missionaries  met, 
when  they  landed  first  in  the  Congo,  are  gradually 
being  removed;  so  that  the  time  has  already  come 
when  a  great  change  is  visible  among  the  people. 

Mr.  Fuller  further  narrates  how  he  stood  at  his 
door  and  saw  one  of  the  chiefs  coming  toward  him. 
He  was  a  great  man,  a  man  of  position  in  his  coun¬ 
try,  but  the  only  covering  that  he  had  on,  was  the 
fibres  of  the  plantain  tree  combed  out  and  on  his 
head  a  great  cap  with  parrots*  feathers.  He  had  a 
great  bullock  horn  hung  across  his  breast,  and  he 
walked  as  stately  as  a  monarch.  Several  of  the  princes 
were  following  him,  all  of  them  dressed  in  the 
same  way.  Mr.  Fuller  called  to  this  man  as  he 
passed  the  door,  using  his  name,  “Mikani,”  but  he 
only  looked  round,  and  would  not  answer.  He  was 
called  again,  but  would  not  answer;  and  yet  a  third 
time,  when  one  of  his  followers  turned  and  said  to 
Mr.  Fuller,  “  What  do  you  want?  ”  “I  only  want  to 
speak  to  him  and  ask  him  a  question,”  was  the  reply. 
The  man  said:  “  He  will  not  answer  you.  He  has 
just  been  taking  the  sacred  oath,  and  has  sworn  that 
for  nine  days  he  will  not  speak  to  anybody  except  by 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


271 


signs.  At  the  end  of  the  nine  days  he  will  go  back 
to  the  place  where  he  came  from,  and  after  that  he 
will  converse  as  of  old.”  It  seemed  of  no  use  to 
trouble  him  any  more,  but  after  the  nine  days  were 
over  Mr.  Fuller  went  to  his  house.  He  was  sitting 
at  the  door,  and  this  bullock’s  horn  that  he  had  worn 
across  his  breast  was  hanging  across  the  threshold  of 
his  door.  His  visitor  looked  at  it,  and  then  looked 
at  him,  and  said:  “Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  a 
big  man  like  you,  in  such  a  position  as  you  are,  be¬ 
lieves  in  such  a  foolish  charm  as  that?  ”  The  man 
was  rather  insulted.  “  What  do  you  mean?  ”  he  said. 
“  Why!  look  at  that!  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  such 
a  thing  has  any  power  in  it  ?  Let  me  take  my  pen¬ 
knife  and  open  it,  and  I  will  show  you  what  is  in  it.” 
There  was  nothing  there  but  some  red  clay,  parrots’ 
feathers,  dogs’  teeth,  pieces  of  the  skins  of  animals, 
some  of  his  own  hair,  and  a  little  bit  of  his  own  toe¬ 
nail.  “Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  believe  in 
that  stuff?”  He  answered:  “Believe  it?  Yes.  If 
I  have  that  horn  hanging  at  my  door  no  witch  will 
dare  to  come  into  my  house.  If  she  came,  before 
she  crossed  the  threshold  of  my  door  she  would  be 
dead.”  Mr.  Fuller  again  remonstrated:  “You  do 
not  believe  such  rubbish,  do  you?”  “I  do.  And 
the  reason  why  you  missionaries  all  die,  is  that  you 
come  into  this  country,  and  the  witches  know  that 
you  have  nothing  to  keep  off  the  power  of  their 
witchcraft,  and  so  they  kill  you ;  but  they  will  not 
come  near  me  because  they  know  that  I  have  got  a 
charm  that  will  stop  them.” 

Mr.  Fuller  made  it  his  business  to  visit  that  man 
day  after  day,  and  try  to  convince  him ;  but  it  seemed 
of  no  use.  He  could  do  nothing.  Six  months  after 
that  time,  he  was  sitting  in  his  little  study  and  heard 
the  drum  that  tells  of  death.  He  knew  what  it  meant. 
When  a  chief  dies,  the  sound  of  that  drum  tells  the 
tale,  and  the  missionary  has  to  be  immediately  on 
the  move  to  prevent  cruelty.  He  took  his  hat 


272 


THE  HEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


directly,  and  started  up,  and  got  to  the  chief’s  hut. 
“  Mikani,  who  is  dead?”  He  hung  his  head  down 
for  a  minute,  and  then  he  said:  “One  of  those 
princes  that  were  with  me  on  that  day.”  “Why,” 
said  Mr.  Fuller,  1  6  you  told  me  that  the  man  that  had 
got  that  charm  would  not  die.  Did  not  that  prince 
wear  one  of  these  horns?”  “Yes.”  “Did  he  not 
have  a  cap?”  “Yes.”  “Was  he  not  protected 
by  that  same  charm?  Then,  how  is  it  that  he 
is  dead?  ”  The  poor  savage  hung  his  head  down 
for  a  moment.  Then  lifting  it  up  he  looked  full 
into  the  missionary’s  face  for  a  few  moments  and 
was  silent.  Finally,  he  stretched  out  his  hand  and 
took  hold  of  the  horn  as  it  hung  across  the  door,  and 
removed  it  from  its  place  and  flung  it  across  the 
road,  and  said:  “I  will  try  your  way.”  Where  is  he 
to-day?  Go  to  the  Cameroons,  and  you  will  see  a 
native  minister  there  preaching  the  gospel;  but  on 
the  right  hand  of  that  native  preacher  sits  a  gray¬ 
headed  man,  and  the  very  look  of  that  man’s  face 
tells  us  of  his  inward  peace  and  happiness.  He  is 
the  same  man.  He  has  tried  and  found  that  there  is 
none  other  name  given  among  men  whereby  we  must 
be  saved  but  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  the 
head  deacon  of  the  Church,  and  the  membership  is 
now  about  seven  hundred.  There  is  a  congregation 
of  perhaps  a  thousand  gathering  together  there  now. 
Yet  when  Mr.  Fuller  landed  in  1845,  less  than  fifty 
years  since,  these  people  were  rank  savages,  brutal 
in  every  act, — naked,  depraved,  cruel,  vicious  sav¬ 
ages;  and  to-day,  clothed  and  in  their  right  mind, 
they  meet  as  a  Christian  congregation,  with  their  dark 
faces  and  their  bright  eyes,  worshipping  the  same 
Saviour  that  we  love ; — and  if  this  is  true  in  such  a 
community,  we  know  that  the  gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  will  win  its  way  wherever  it  goes. 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


273 


The  Pentecost  on  the  Congo. 

Few  tales  of  missionary  experience  surpass  for 
thrilling  interest  that  of  the  work  of  the  past  fifteen 
years  at  Banza  Manteke.  In  1879,  Rev.  Henry 
Richards  went  from  England  as  missionary  of  the 
Livingstone  Inland  Mission,  and,  at  Banza  Manteke, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Congo,  and  ten  miles  south  of  its  stream,  established 
a  mission  station,  afterward  transferred  to  the 
American  Baptist  Missionary  Union. 

Mr.  Richards  came  to  the  United  States  in  1890, 
and  told  of  the  Lord’s  work  on  the  Congo, — a  story 
so  full  of  interest  that  we  present  in  these  pages  a 
condensed  account,  as  worthy  both  of  preservation 
and  wider  circulation. 

When  Stanley  travelled  from  Zanzibar  across  the 
Dark  Continent,  for  a  thousand  days,  though  he  met 
many  thousands  of  people  each  day,  he  did  not  find 
one  who  knew  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  In  1879,  two 
missionaries  were  sent  out  to  penetrate  this  trackless, 
desolate  region.  At  length  they  reached  Banza 
Manteke,  and,  unable  to  go  farther,  decided  there 
to  establish  a  station ;  for  many  villages  were  near  by, 
and  the  people  were  friendly. 

They  had  only  one  tent,  and  built  a  hut  of  the  long 
grass  that  grew  about  them.  There,  in  September, 
1879,  Mr.  Richards  found  himself  alone,  among  peo¬ 
ple  entirely  unknown  to  him,  as  were  also  their 
customs  and  their  language.  He  began  at  once  to 
study  them  and  then  their  strange  tongue.  Some 
things,  however,  he  learned  only  too  soon.  He 
found  that  they  all  seemed  to  be  thieves,  and  would 
take  everything  on  which  they  could  lay  hands. 
They  were  equally  adepts  at  lying;  for  when  he 
would  look  into  their  faces  and  charge  them  with 
their  theft,  they  would  deny  it  with  brazen-faced 
stolidity. 

He  gives  an  interesting  description  of  his  experi- 


274 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


ence  in  learning  their  language.  They  had  no  dic¬ 
tionaries,  grammars,  nor  literature  of  any  kind,  and 
no  white  man  had  ever  learned  their  tongue.  In  a 
note-book  he  wrote  down  phonetically  everything  he 
heard,  with  the  supposed  meaning  belonging  to  the 
word.  In  this  way  he  soon  had  a  number  of  words, 
phrases,  and  sentences,  which  at  once  he  began  to 
use.  His  hearers  often  laughed  at  his  mispronunci¬ 
ations  and  his  awkward  blunders  in  putting  words 
together;  but  he  quietly  persisted  in  his  effort. 
Some  words  he  found  it  very  hard  to  get  at.  For 
instance,  he  noticed  the  strong  affection  between 
mothers  and  their  children,  and  he  sought  the  word 
for  mother.  He  thought  he  had  succeeded,  but  after¬ 
ward  he  learned  that  the  supposed  word  for  mother 
really  meant  a  full-grown  man.  He  was  three 
months  in  finding  out  the  equivalent  for  yester¬ 
day. 

He  tried  to  get  hold  of  the  grammar  of  the  lan¬ 
guage.  He  began  with  the  nouns,  and  sought  for 
the  way  of  forming  plurals,  suspecting  it  was  by 
some  modification  at  the  end  of  the  words,  but  he 
could  detect  no  such  change.  After  much  experi¬ 
menting  he  found  that  there  were  sixteen  classes  of 
nouns,  with  as  many  modes  of  forming  the  plural ; 
and  in  like  manner  he  discovered  seventeen  different 
classes  of  verbs,  with  many  tenses  besides  the  ordi¬ 
nary  present,  past  and  future,  each  having  its  speci¬ 
fic  form,  the  shades  of  meaning  in  these  variations 
often  being  very  delicate  and  beautiful. 

The  language  was  found  to  be  no  mere  jargon, 
but  really  very  beautiful,  euphonious  and  flowing, 
with  numerous  inflections.  When  once  acquired,  it 
was  easy  to  preach  in  it  and  to  translate  the  Scrip¬ 
tures  into  it.  He  says,  “If  some  of  our  best  lin¬ 
guists  were  to  try  to  form  a  perfect  language,  they 
could  not  do  better  than  to  follow  the  Congo.  It 
seems  to  be  altogether  superior  to  the  people;  and 
there  must  have  been  a  time  when  they  were  in  a 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES . 


275 


higher  state  of  civilization,  from  which  in  some  way 
they  have  degenerated.” 

After  learning  in  this  patient  way  to  use  the  lan¬ 
guage  a  little,  he  began  to  study  into  the  customs, 
superstitions  and  religion  of  the  people.  He  found 
that  they  believed  in  a  great  Creator,  who  made  all 
things,  but  they  did  not  worship  this  “  Nzambi,” 
because  they  did  not  think  Him  a  good  God,  or 
worthy  of  praise  and  worship.  He  did  not  concern 
Himself  about  them;  He  was  too  far  away.  They 
had  little  images  cut  out  of  wood — some  like  them¬ 
selves,  only  with  birds*  heads,  beaks,  and  claws; 
others  like  animals — these  are  their  gods.  They 
trust  them  to  protect  from  sickness,  death,  disaster, 
but  expect  no  direct  blessings  from  them.  They 
believe  also  in  witchcraft,  to  which  they  attribute  all 
evils  and  misfortunes,  and  which  they  counteract  by 
charms.  They  send  for  witch-doctors,  if  any  one  is 
sick,  who  with  many  incantations  drive  out  the 
demon,  or  point  out  some  person  as  the  witch,  who 
has  to  undergo  the  test  by  poison,  so  common  in 
Africa. 

Mr.  Richards  sought  to  show  them  that  sickness, 
death  and  other  calamity  are  due  not  to  witchcraft, 
but  to  sin.  He  gave  them  the  Bible  account  of  the 
creation  and  the  fall,  etc.,  and  tried  to  show  that 
God  is  not  only  a  great,  all-powerful  Creator,  but  a 
kind  and  loving  Father.  For  four  years  he  pursued 
this  course,  thinking  it  necessary  to  give  them  some 
idea  of  the  Old  Testament  before  beginning  with  the 
New.  But  they  were  just  as  rank  heathen  at  the  end 
of  this  time  as  when  he  first  went  among  them. 
There  was  no  evidence  of  any  change.  They  did 
not  even  feel  themselves  to  be  sinners. 

Then  Mr.  Richards  went  home  for  a  season  of  rest, 
and,  while  there,  spoke  to  some  who  had  had  much 
experience  in  mission  work,  seeking  a  clew  to  his 
maze  of  difficulty.  He  was  advised  to  go  back  and 
preach  the  law — for  that  convinces  of  sin.  So  on 


276 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


reaching  Banza  Manteke  again,  the  first  thing  he  did 
was  to  translate  the  Ten  Commandments  and  expound 
them  to  the  people.  They  said  the  commandments 
were  very  good,  but  claimed  that  they  had  kept  them; 
and  the  plainest  and  most  personal  applications  of  the 
decalogue  made  no  apparent  impression.  So  two 
years  more  passed,  and  the  people  were  no  better. 
He  began  to  be  hopeless  of  doing  them  any  good. 
He  had  gained  their  respect,  and  they  were  kind  to 
him,  but  that  was  all. 

At  last,  in  his  discouragement,  he  began  to  study 
the  Scriptures  anew  for  himself,  feeling  that  there 
must  be  some  mistake  in  his  preaching  or  lack  in  his 
living.  In  the  Apostolic  days  souls  were  converted; 
why  not  now?  Surely  the  gospel  had  not  lost  its 
power.  If,  in  the  days  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
heathen  turned  from  idols  to  serve  the  living  God, 
why  should  not  these  heathen  in  Banza  Manteke? 
He  studied  the  Gospel  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
and  began  to  see  that  the  commission  is  not,  “  Go  ye 
into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Law,”  but  “  preach 
the  Gospel .”  This  was  the  turning-point  in  the  work 
of  this  lonely  and  disheartened  missionary!  He 
determined  simply  to  preach  the  gospel.  Again  he 
noticed  that  disciples  were  bidden  to  wait  until  they 
were  endued  with  power  from  on  high .  He  felt  that 
he  had  not  this  power.  He  returned  to  his  work, 
determined  not  only  to  preach  the  gospel,  but  cry 
to  God  for  the  promised  enduement. 

It  was  needful  to  decide  just  what  “  preaching  the 
gospel”  means.  If  he  preached  Jesus  crucified,  the 
people  would  want  to  know  who  Jesus  was.  He 
decided  to  take  Luke’s  Gospel  as  most  complete  and 
suitable  for  gentiles.  He  began  translating  ten  or 
twelve  verses  a  day,  and  then  read  and  expounded 
them,  asking  God  to  bless  His  own  word.  At  once 
his  dark  hearers  proved  more  interested  than  when 
he  had  preached  the  law,  and  he  was  more  and  more 
encouraged.  When  he  came  to  the  sixth  chapter  of 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES , 


277 


Luke,  thirtieth  verse,  a  new  difficulty  arose — “Give 
to  every  man  that  asketh  of  thee.”  But  these  peo¬ 
ple  were  notorious  beggars ;  they  would  ask  for  any¬ 
thing  that  pleased  their  eye — his  blanket,  his  knife, 
his  plate — and  when  he  would  say  he  could  not  give 
these  things  to  them,  they  would  reply,  “You  can  get 
more.”  Henry  Richards  was  greatly  perplexed  as  to 
what  to  do  with  that  verse .  He  let  his  helper  in 
translation  go,  and  went  to  his  room  to  pray  over  the 
matter.  The  time  for  the  daily  service  was  drawing 
near.  What  should  he  do?  Why  not  pass  over  that 
verse  ?  But  conscience  replied  that  this  would  not  be 
honest  dealing  with  God’s  word.  The  preaching 
hour  came;  instead  of  advancing,  he  went  back  to 
the  beginning  of  the  gospel,  reviewing  the  earlier 
part,  to  gain  time  for  fuller  consideration  of  that 
perplexing  text.  Still,  on  further  study,  he  could 
not  find  that  it  meant  anything  but  just  what  it  said. 
The  commentators  said,  Jesus  was  giving  general 
principles,  and  we  must  use  common  sense  in  inter¬ 
preting  His  words.  But  this  did  not  satisfy  him.  If 
he  interpreted  one  text  in  this  way,  why  not  all 
others?  “Common  sense”  seemed  a  very  unsafe 
commentator. 

A  fortnight  of  prayer  and  consideration  drove  him  to 
the  wall :  the  Lord  meant  just  what  He  said.  And  so 
he  read  to  the  people  that  verse,  “Give  to  every  man 
that  asketh  of  thee,”  and  told  them  that  this  was  a 
very  high  standard,  and  would  probably  take  a  lifetime 
to  live  up  to  it;  but  he  meant  to  live  what  he  preached. 
After  the  address  the  natives  began  to  ask  him  for 
this  and  that,  and  he  gave  them  whatever  they  asked 
for,  wondering  whereunto  this  thing  would  grow; 
but  he  told  the  Lord  he  could  see  no  other  meaning 
in  His  words.  Somehow  the  people  were  evidently 
deeply  impressed  by  his  course.  One  day  he  over¬ 
heard  one  say:  “I  got  this  from  the  white  man.” 
Then  another  said  that  he  was  going  to  ask  him  for 
such  a  thing.  But  a  third  said,  “No;  buy  it  if  you 


278 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


want  it;”  and  another  said,  “  This  must  be  God’s  man, 
we  never  saw  any  other  man  do  so.  Don’t  you  think 
if  he  is  God’s  man  we  ought  to  stop  robbing  him?  ” 
Grace  was  working  in  their  hearts.  After  that  they 
rarely  asked  him  for  anything,  and  even  brought 
back  what  they  had  taken ! 

This  humble  man  went  on  translating  and  expound¬ 
ing  Luke’s  Gospel,  and  the  interest  continually  grew. 
The  climax  was  reached  as  he  came  to  the  account 
of  the  crucifixion  of  Christ.  A  large  congregation 
confronted  him  that  day.  He  reminded  the  people 
of  the  kindness  and  goodness  of  Jesus,  and  of  His 
works  of  mercy;  and,  pointing  to  Him  as  nailed  upon 
the  cross  between  thieves,  he  said:  “  Jesus  never 
would  have  died  if  we  had  not  been  sinners ;  it  was 
because  of  your  sins  and  mine  that  he  died.”  The 
impression  was  very  deep.  The  Holy  Ghost  seemed 
to  have  fallen  upon  the  people ! 

He  continued  preaching  the  gospeHand  seeking 
Holy  Ghost  power.  One  day  as  they  were  return¬ 
ing  from  a  service,  Lutale,  who  helped  him  in 
translating,  began  to  sing  one  of  the  Congo  hymns. 
His  face  shone  with  joy,  and  he  said:  “  I  do  believe 
these  words;  I  do  believe  Jesus  has  taken  away  my 
sins;  I  do  believe  He  has  saved  me.”  Seven  years 
of  toil,  weary  waiting  and  suffering  had  passed,  and 
now  the  first  convert  was  found  at  Banza  Manteke ! 
At  once,  Lutale  began  testifying  what  the  Lord  had 
done  for  him.  But  the  people  became  his  enemies 
and  tried  to  poison  him ;  so  that  he  had  to  leave  his 
town  and  live  with  Mr.  Richards  for  safety.  For  a 
time  there  were  no  more  converts,  but  the  people 
were  stirred.  By  and  by  the  king’s  son  became  a 
Christian.  Shortly  after,  another  man  came  with 
his  idols,  and  placing  them  on  a  table,  said,  with  sav¬ 
age  determination,  “  I  want  to  become  a  Christian,” 
and  he  soon  began  to  preach.  The  work  went  on 
until  ten  were  converted,  but  all  had  to  leave  their 
own  homes,  as  they  were  threatened  with  death. 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES. 


279 


The  missionary  now  shut  up  his  house,  and  taking 
these  men  with  him,  went  from  town  to  town  preach¬ 
ing  the  gospel.  The  whole  community  was  greatly 
moved;  one  after  another  came  over  to  Christ’s  side. 
Two  daily  meetings  were  held,  and  inquirers  were 
numerous.  The  work  continued  and  was  blessed, 
until  all  the  people  immediately  around  Banza  Man - 
teke  had  abandoned  their  heathenism!  More  than 
one  thousand  names  were  enrolled  in  a  book  of  those 
who  gave  evidence  of  real  conversion. 

After  years  had  passed,  Mr.  Richards  found  the 
converts  holding  on  their  way.  About  three  hun¬ 
dred  had  been  baptized,  and  the  native  Church  was 
earnest  and  spiritual.  There  had  been  much  perse¬ 
cution,  but  it  had  failed  to  intimidate  these  new  con¬ 
verts.  Materials  for  a  chapel,  provided  through  the 
liberality  of  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon’s  church  in  Boston, 
were  brought  to  a  point  fifty  or  sixty  miles  distant, 
and  carried  by  the  people  all  the  way  to  Banza  Man- 
teke,  over  rough  roads.  Some  of  the  carriers  went 
four  or  five  times,  each  trip  requiring  a  week.  In  all 
there  were  about  seven  hundred  loads,  of  sixty  pounds 
each,  and  the  whole  of  these  loads  were  borne  with¬ 
out  charge. 

Those  who  had  been  thieves  and  liars  before,  now 
became  honest,  truthful,  industrious  and  cleanly. 
Witchcraft,  poison-giving,  and  all  such  heathen 
practices  have  been  put  away.  They  brought  their 
idols,  and  at  the  first  baptism  had  a  bonfire  of  images, 
destroying  every  vestige  of  idolatry !  Laus  Deo! 

The  Pentecost  at  Hilo. 

We  have  reserved  for  the  last  of  these  sketches  of 
transformed  communities,  one  which  deserves  a 
separate  setting,  as  a  peculiarly  lustrous  gem.* 

Titus  Coan,  nearly  sixty  years  ago,  in  1835,  began 
his  memorable  mission  on  the  shore  belt  of  Hawaii. 

*  Eschol.  By  S.  J.  Humphrey,  D.D. 


280  THE  HE  tV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

He  soon  began  to  use  the  native  tongue,  and  within 
the  year  made  his  first  tour  of  the  island.  He  was 
a  relative  of  Nettleton  and  had  been  a  co-labourer 
with  Finney,  and  had  learned  what  arrows  are  best 
for  a  preacher’s  quiver,  and  how  to  use  his  bow. 
His  whole  being  was  full  of  spiritual  energy  and 
unction,  and,  on  his  first  tour,  multitudes  flocked  to 
hear,  and  many  seemed  pricked  in  their  hearts. 
The  multitudes  thronged  him  and  followed  him,  and 
like  his  Master,  he  had  no  leisure,  so  much  as  to  eat; 
and  once  he  preached  three  times  before  he  had  a 
chance  to  breakfast.  He  was  wont  to  make  four  or 
five  tours  a  year,  and  saw  tokens  of  interest,  that  im¬ 
pressed  him  with  so  strange  a  sense  of  the  presence 
of  God,  that  he  said  little  about  them  and  scarcely 
understood,  himself.  He  could  only  say,  “It  was 
wonderful !”  He  went  about,  like  Jeremiah,  with  the 
fire  of  the  Lord  in  his  bones ;  weary  with  forbearing, 
he  could  not  stay. 

In  1837,  the  slumbering  fires  broke  out.  Nearly 
the  whole  population  became  an  audience,  and  those 
who  could  not  come  to  the  services  were  brought  on 
their  beds  or  on  the  backs  of  others.  Mr.  Coan  found 
himself  ministering  to  fifteen  thousand  people,  scat¬ 
tered  along  the  hundred  miles  of  coast.  He  longed 
to  be  able  to  fly,  that  he  might  get  over  the  ground, 
or  to  be  able  to  multiply  himself  twentyfold,  to 
reach  the  multitudes  who  fainted  for  spiritual  food. 

Necessity  devises  new  methods.  He  bade  those 
to  whom  he  could  not  go,  come  to  him,  and,  for  a 
mile  around,  the  people  settled  down — Hilo’s  little 
population  of  a  thousand  swelled  tenfold,  and  here 
was  held,  on  a  huge  scale,  a  two  years’  unique 
“camp  meeting.”  There  was  not  an  hour,  day  or 
night,  when  an  audience  of  from  two  thousand  to  six 
thousand  would  not  rally  at  the  signal  of  the  bell. 

There  was  no  disorder,  and  the  camp  became  a 
sort  of  industrial  school,  where  gardening,  mat¬ 
braiding,  and  bonnet  making  were  taught  as  well  as 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES.  281 

purely  religious  truth.  These  great  “  protracted 
meetings  ”  crowded  the  old  church  with  six  thousand 
hearers,  and  a  newer  building  with  half  as  many 
more ;  and  when  the  people  got  seated,  they  were  so 
close  that  until  the  meeting  broke  up  no  one  could 
move.  The  preacher  does  not  hesitate  to  deal  in 
stern  truths.  The  law  with  its  awful  perfection; 
hell,  with  its  fires,  of  which  the  crater  of  Kilauea 
and  the  volcanoes  about  them  might  well  furnish  a 
vivid  picture — the  deep  and  damning  guilt  of  sin, 
the  hopelessness  and  helplessness  of  spiritual  death 
— prepare  the  way  for  earnest  gospel  invitation  and 
appeal.  The  vast  audience  sways  as  cedars  before  a 
tornado.  There  is  trembling,  weeping,  sobbing  and 
loud  crying  for  mercy,  sometimes  too  loud  for  the 
preacher  to  be  heard;  and  in  hundreds  of  cases  his 
hearers  fall  in  a  swoon. 

Titus  Coan  was  made  for  the  work  God  had  for 
him,  and  he  controlled  these  great  masses.  He 
preached  with  great  simplicity,  illustrating  and 
applying  the  grand  old  truths,  made  no  effort  to  ex¬ 
cite  but  rather  to  allay  excitement,  and  asked  for  no 
external  manifestation  of  interest.  He  depended  on 
the  word,  borne  home  by  the  Spirit.  And  the  Spirit 
wrought.  Some  would  cry  out,  “The  two-edged 
sword  is  cutting  me  to  pieces.”  The  wicked  scoffer 
who  came  to  make  sport  dropped  like  a  log,  and 
said,  “God  has  struck  me.”  Once  while  preaching 
in  the  open  field  to  two  thousand  people,  a  man  cried 
out,  “  What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?  ”  and  prayed  the 
publican’s  prayer;  and  the  entire  congregation  took 
up  the  cry  for  mercy.  For  a  half  hour  Mr.  Coan 
could  get  no  chance  to  speak,  but  had  to  stand  still 
and  see  God  work. 

There  were  greater  signs  of  the  Spirit  than  mere 
words  of  agony  or  confession.  Godly  repentance 
was  at  work — quarrels  were  reconciled,  drunkards 
abandoned  drink,  thieves  restored  stolen  property, 
adulteries  gave  place  to  purity,,  and  murders  were 


282 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


confessed.  The  high  priest  of  Pele  and  custodian  of 
her  crater  shrine,  who  by  his  glance  could  doom  a 
native  to  strangulation,  on  whose  shadow  no  Ha¬ 
waiian  dared  tread,  who  ruthlessly  struck  men  dead 
for  their  food  or  garments*  sake  and  robbed  and  out¬ 
raged  human  beings  for  a  pastime — this  gigantic 
criminal  came  into  the  meetings  with  his  sister,  the 
priestess — and  even  such  as  they  found  an  irresistible 
power  there — and  with  bitter  tears  and  penitent  con¬ 
fession,  the  crimes  of  this  monster  were  unearthed. 
He  acknowledged  that  what  he  had  worshipped  was 
no  God  at  all,  and  publicly  renounced  his  idolatry 
and  bowed  before  Jesus.  These  two  had  spent  about 
seventy  years  in  sin,  but  till  death  maintained  their 
Christian  confession. 

In  1838,  the  converts  continued  to  multiply. 
Though  but  two  missionaries,  a  lay  preacher,  and 
their  wives,  constituted  the  force,  and  the  field  was  a 
hundred  miles  long,  the  word  and  work  was  with 
power,  because  God  was  in  it  all.  Mr.  Coan’s  trips 
were  first  of  all  for  preaching;  and  he  spoke  on  the 
average  from  three  to  four  times  a  day;  but  these 
public  appeals  were  interlaced  with  visits  of  a  pastoral 
nature  at  the  homes  of  the  people,  and  with  the  search¬ 
ing  inquiry  into  their  state.  This  marvellous  man 
kept  track  of  his  immense  parish,  and  knew  a  church 
membership  of  five  thousand  as  thoroughly  as  when 
it  numbered  one  hundred.  He  never  lost  individual 
knowledge  and  contact  in  all  this  huge  increase — 
what  a  model  to  modern  pastors,  who  magnify 
preaching  but  have  “  no  time  to  visit!  ”  It  was  part 
of  his  plan  that  not  one  living  person  in  all  Puna  or 
Hilo  should  not  have  the  gospel  brought  repeatedly 
to  the  conscience,  and  he  did  not  spare  any  endeav¬ 
our  or  exposure  to  reach  the  people. 

He  set  his  people  to  work,  and  above  forty  of  them 
visited  from  house  to  house  within  five  miles  of  the 
central  station.  The  results  were  simply  incredible 
were  they  not  attested  abundantly. 


TRANSFORMED  COMMUNITIES.  283 

After  great  care  in  examining  and  testing  candi¬ 
dates,  during  the  twelve  months,  ending  in  June, 
1839,  5,244  persons  had  been  received  into  the 
Church.  On  one  Sabbath,  1,705  were  baptized,  and 
2,400  sat  down  together  at  the  Lord’s  Table.  It 
was  a  gathering  of  villages,  and  the  head  of  each 
village  came  forward  with  his  selected  converts. 
With  the  exception  of  one  such  scene  at  Ongole, 
just  forty  years  later,  probably  no  such  a  sight  has 
been  witnessed  since  the  day  of  Pentecost.  What 
a  scene  was  that  when  nearly  two  thousand  five 
hundred  sat  down  together  to  eat  the  Lord’s  Sup¬ 
per!  And  what  a  gathering!  “the  old,  the  de¬ 
crepit,  the  lame,  the  blind,  the  maimed,  the  with¬ 
ered,  the  paralytic,  and  those  afflicted  with  divers 
diseases  and  torments;  those  with  eyes,  noses,  lips 
and  limbs  consumed  with  the  fire  of  their  own  or 
their  parents’  former  lusts,  with  features  distorted 
and  figures  the  most  depraved  and  loathsome, — 
and  these  came  hobbling  upon  their  staves,  and  led 
or  borne  by  their  friends ;  and  among  the  throng  the 
hoary  priest  of  idolatry,  with  hands  but  recently 
washed  from  the  blood  of  human  victims,  together 
with  the  thief,  the  adulterer,  the  Sodomite,  the  sor¬ 
cerer,  the  robber,  the  murderer;  and  the  mother — no, 
the  monster — whose  hands  had  reeked  with  the  blood 
of  her  own  children !  These  all  met  before  the  cross 
of  Christ  with  their  enmity  slain,  and  themselves 
“washed  and  sanctified  and  justified  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God.” 

During  the  five  years,  ending  June,  1841,  7,557 
persons  were  received  to  the  Church  at  Hilo, — 
three-fourths  of  the  whole  adult  population  of  the 
parish.  When  Titus  Coan  left  Hilo  in  1870,  he  had 
himself  received  and  baptized  11,960  persons. 

These  people  held  fast  the  faith,  only  one  in  sixty 
becoming  amenable  to  discipline.  Not  even  a  grog¬ 
shop  was  to  be  found  in  that  parish,  and  the  Sabbath 
was  better  kept  than  in  New  England.  In  1867,  the 


284 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


old  mother  church  divided  into  seven,  and  there  have 
been  built  fifteen  houses  for  worship,  mainly  with 
the  money  and  labour  of  the  people  themselves; 
who  have  also  planted  and  sustained  their  own 
missions,  having  given  in  the  aggregate  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  holy  uses,  and  having  sent  twelve 
of  their  number  to  the  regions  beyond. 

Christian  history  presents  no  record  of  divine 
power  more  thrilling  than  this  of  the  Great  Revival 
at  the  Hawaiian  Islands  from  1836  to  1842.  When 
in  1870  the  American  Board  withdrew  from  this  field, 
there  were  nearly  sixty  self-supporting  churches, 
more  than  two-thirds  having  a  native  pastorate,  with 
a  membership  of  about  fifteen  thousand.  That  year 
their  contributions  reached  $30,000.  Thirty  per 
cent,  of  their  ministers  became  missionaries  on  other 
islands.  That  same  year,  Kanwealoha,  the  old 
native  missionary,  in  presence  of  a  vast  throng, 
where  the  royal  family  and  dignitaries  of  the  islands 
were  assembled,  held  up  the  Word  of  God  in  the 
Hawaiian  tongue,  and  in  these  few  words  gave  the 
most  comprehensive  tribute  to  the  fruits  of  gospel 
labour : 

“Not  with  powder  and  ball,  and  swords  and  can¬ 
non,  but  with  this  living  Word  of  God,  and  His 
Spirit,  do  we  go  forth  to  conquer  the  Islands  for 
Christ !  ” 


IV. 


THE  NEW  WITNESSES  AND  WORKERS. 

The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles  tells,  as  we  have 
intimated,  not  only  of  converts,  but  of  those  who  as 
unmistakably  belong  to  the  ‘ 4  noble  army  of  martyrs  ” 
as  did  Stephen  or  James.  Converts  from  tribes 
the  most  debased  have  given  proof  alike  of  genuine¬ 
ness  and  heroism  by  the  voluntary  endurance  of 
suffering,  torture  and  death  for  Christ’s  sake. 

When  the  capricious  and  treacherous  King  of 
Uganda  panted  like  a  wild  beast  for  the  blood  of 
Christian  victims,  he  seized  young  lads  whose  only 
crime  or  offence  was  their  ardent  attachment  to 
Jesus,  and  the  consistency  that,  in  them,  rebuked 
his  fickleness  and  inconstancy;  and  they  were  led 
away  to  die.  The  crowd  followed  them  with  jeering 
and  mockery,  led  on  by  the  * 6  high  priest”  of  the 
king’s  cruelty.  But  ridicule  and  sneer  expended 
their  darts  in  vain  upon  the  shield  of  faith  borne  by 
these  young  disciples. 

They  were,  like  their  crucified  Lord,  taunted  with 
their  faith  in  God  and  their  trust  in  His  promises, 
and  were  burned  to  ashes  to  test  their  new  doctrine 
of  the  resurrection.  But  the  answer  to  all  this  was 
that  of  the  prisoners  in  the  Philippian  jail — prayer 
and  praise  to  God.  The  place  of  their  death  was  the 
edge  of  the  dismal  swamp — Maganja;  the  bed  of 
their  torture  a  wicker  framework  built  over  a  slow 
fire ;  and  the  prelude  to  this  awful  agony  was  mutila¬ 
tion — the  knife,  then  the  flame.  Butchery  without 
mercy— then  roasting  with  fiendish  cruelty!  Not  a 
murmur  of  complaint — songs  of  praise  to  Jesus, 
mingled  with  moans  of  agony  and  sobs  of  anguish ; 
and  then  the  long  silence  that  tells  of  the  end!  Yet 
when  another  young  convert  stood  by  and  saw  all 

285 


286 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


this  and  was  threatened  with  a  like  fate,  he  only 
dared  these  human  fiends  to  do  their  worst,  declar¬ 
ing  that  he  was  not  ashamed  of  Jesus. 

Japanese  converts  have  had  to  risk  martyrdom. 
When  in  1876,  forty  pupils  of  Captain  Janes’  school 
in  Higo,  in  Kiushu,  pledged  themselves  to  Christ,  it 
was  the  signal  for  open  war.  The  leaders  were  with¬ 
drawn  from  the  school,  held  as  prisoners,  some  of 
them  for  over  three  months,  and  subjected  to  all  sorts 
of  intimidation  and  indignity ;  parents  vowed  to  com¬ 
mit  harakiri ,  unless  their  sons  abandoned  the  Chris¬ 
tian  faith;  but  they  stood  firm.  Their  Bibles  were 
burned,  their  physical  strength  in  some  cases  failed, 
and  death  was  threatened;  but  all  in  vain.  One 
of  them  was  made  the  slave  of  the  servants  in 
his  own  home,  and  they  were  bidden  to  treat  him  as 
a  devil-possessed  man  without  human  rights.  He 
became  an  outcast  in  his  own  father’s  house,  but 
stood  like  a  rock. 

It  must  be  remembered  that,  notwithstanding  all 
the  missionary  literature  of  our  day,  the  history  of 
the  work  of  the  past  century  is  but  fragmentary, 
like  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Especially  is  this  to 
be  borne  in  mind,  that  most  of  the  facts  concerning 
the  development  of  native  disciples  on  foreign  soil 
have  been  gathered  from  incidental  references  in  the 
biographies  of  missionaries.  The  major  part  of  the 
history  of  native  converts  and  churches  is  yet  un¬ 
written.  For  example,  there  is  as  yet  no  published 
account  of  Dr.  G.  L.  Mackay’s  work  in  Formosa. 
Who  shall  tell  us  the  full  story  of  converts  and 
martyrs  who  belong  to  the  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles? 
We  must  wait  till  God’s  Book  of  Remembrance  is  read ! 

Martyrs — yes,  and  missionaries ,  too,  have  come 
from  the  ranks  of  these  converts.  Not  only  have 
noble  disciples,  but  valiant  witnesses  and  apostolic 
preachers  and  evangelists,  come  from  the  Maoris  of 
New  Zealand,  the  Hottentots  of  the  Southern  Cape, 
the  cannibals  of  the  South  Seas,  the  brutal  Mala- 


THE  NEW  WITNESSES  AND  WORKERS.  287 


gasy,  the  Australian  aborigines — Nazareths  of  pa¬ 
ganism  whence  even  Christian  disciples  once  thought 
no  good  thing — certainly  no  prophet — could  come. 

The  ministry  is  the  flower  of  church  life,  and, 
therefore,  its  highest  product — its  consummate  fruit 
and  hope ;  for  in  that  flower  is  not  only  the  bloom  of 
the  beauty  of  the  divine  plant,  but  its  fruit  and  seed 
— the  secret  of  propagation.  In  the  Acts,  we  trace 
the  results  of  missions  in  the  creation  of  new  heralds 
who  spread  missions.  And,  in  the  new  Acts,  con¬ 
verts  have  scarcely  been  gathered  into  churches  upon 
heathen  soil,  before,  by  a  spontaneous  movement  of 
the  new  life,  these  converts  themselves  have  been 
found  going  to  the  other  unsaved  souls  about  them 
with  the  good  news — and  outrunning  the  mother 
churches  of  Christendom  in  zeal  and  activity.  The 
first  mission  to  Micronesia  was  organized  and 
manned  by  Hawaiian  converts.  It  was  the  South 
Sea  disciples  that  John  Williams  sent  forth  as 
pioneers  to  new  islands  and  island  groups ;  and  they 
won  triumphs  and  bore  away  trophies  where  no 
white  man  had  ever  set  foot.  Bishop  Patteson’s  ten 
years’  work  in  Melanesia  was  full  of  pathetic 
heroism;  and  his  native  boys  proved  how  sincere 
was  their  love  to  Christ  and  how  ardent  their  zeal 
for  His  kingdom,  when  they  offered  to  go  and 
undertake  work  on  other  islands.  The  Southern 
Cross ,  in  the  year  of  Patteson’s  death,  bore  twenty- 
nine  of  them  from  the  missionary  college  at  Norfolk 
Island  to  spread  gospel  light  at  their  homes;  and 
when  the  year  ended,  three  hundred  were  at  work, 
and  they  represented  most  of  the  islands  from  the 
New  Hebrides  to  the  Solomon  group. 

The  total  force  at  work  now  on  the  foreign  field 
is  close  to  fifty  thousand ;  and  while  not  more  than 
one-fifth  of  the  number  come  from  Christian  lands — 
including  wives  of  missionaries  and  other  women 
who  are  teaching — the  other  four-fifths  are  native 
evangelists,  preachers  and  pastors,  teachers  and 


288 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


helpers !  So  that  the  missions,  recently  begun  among 
heathens  and  pagans,  have  already  given  to  the  mis¬ 
sion  field  four  times  as  many  workers  as  the 
churches  at  home  have  sent  forth !  When  converted 
Raiateans  organize  missionary  associations,  estab¬ 
lish  missions  in  surrounding  islands  and  support 
them  with  offerings  of  cocoanut  oil ;  when  the 
Samoans  surprise  the  missionary  by  declaring  that 
they  are  “  Sons  of  the  Word,”  and  in  eighteen  years 
every  island,  within  a  circle  whose  diameter  is  four 
thousand  miles,  has  heard  the  gospel,  and  all  this 
mostly  at  the  mouth  of  native  converts, — the  Church 
may  well  stop  to  ask  whether  mission-harvests  have 
not  yielded  more  of  the  seed  of  propagation  than 
the  crops  that  grow  at  home ! 

When,  from  Erromanga’s  shore,  the  relics  of  Will¬ 
iams’s  devoured  body  was  borne  to  Upolu,  his 
Samoan  converts  resolved  to  rear  the  cross  on  the  spot 
where  he  fell;  and  at  risk  of  like  fate,  again  and 
again,  they  made  the  attempt.  When  Bishop 
Selwyn  knelt  on  that  tragic  shore  to  ask  God  to  open 
a  door  of  access  to  those  debased  natives,  it  was  a 
converted  pagan  teacher  who  knelt  beside  him. 
And  when  at  length,  forty  years  ago,  the  chief,  whose 
club  killed  Williams,  surrendered  that  club  as  a 
trophy  of  missionary  triumph,  it  was  two  natives 
from  the  Hervey  group  who  had  effected  entrance. 

Thus  the  triumphs  of  the  cross  are  already  to  be 
found  among  all  tribes  and  races,  classes  and  condi¬ 
tions  of  men.  As  Dr.  Flint  has  well  said,  “  Com¬ 
parative  theology  is  a  magnificent  demonstration  not 
only  that  man  was  made  for  religion,  but  for  what 
religion  man  was  made.”  What  missions  do  is 
sufficiently  demonstrated  and  illustrated  by  what  has 
already  been  done.  The  individual  is  the  type  of  the 
universal,  and  one  community,  of  all  others  like  itself. 
God  has  chosen  enough  of  the  highest  from  among 
the  heathen  to  prove  that  none  are  so  elevated  as  not 
to  need  the  gospel ;  and  sufficient  from  the  lowest. 


THE  NEW  WITNESSES  AND  WORKERS.  289 


to  show  that  none  are  so  degraded  as  to  be  beyond 
the  gospel’s  reach.  Whatever  doubt  may  have  ex¬ 
isted  as  to  the  expediency  and  efficiency  of  Christian 
missions,  that  greatest  logician,  Experience,  has  now 
demonstrated  such  doubt  to  be  unreasonable  and  un¬ 
founded. 

The  most  hopeless  fields  have  often  been  the  most 
fruitful  in  the  end,  and  the  harvests  that  have  been 
longest  in  ripening  have  often  been  the  largest  in 
yielding.  History  is  already  so  fulfilling  prophecy 
as  to  render  the  most  glorious  predictions  no  longer 
seem  incredible.  God  has  thus  emphasized  His  own 
command  by  the  encouragements  of  rewarded  toil. 
Facts  are  His  new  trumpets  that  sound  His  new  sig¬ 
nals.  The  world  lies  before  us,  open  to  access;  a 
thousand  millions  of  human  beings  wait  for  the  mes¬ 
sage.  To  go  and  give  the  gospel  is  to  impart  infinite 
blessing,  and  yet  increase  our  own  riches  of  grace  in 
imparting.  Every  motive — whether  drawn  from  the 
voice  of  authority  that  spoke  on  Galilean  hills,  or 
from  the  wail  of  human  woe  and  want  that  comes  up 
like  the  moan  and  sob  of  many  waters  telling  of 
wrecks  and  drowning  souls — every  conceivable  incen¬ 
tive,  whether  found  in  devotion  to  our  Lord  or  pas¬ 
sion  for  men;  in  the  humane  sympathy  that  would 
relieve  man’s  present  misery,  or  the  holier  self-sacri¬ 
fice  that  would  uplift  and  redeem  immortal  souls — 
every  motive  and  incentive  unite  to  urge  us  to 
bear  to  the  earth’s  utmost  end  the  tidings  of  the 
cross.  Let  us  tell  men  what  Christ  has  done  for  the 
world  and  its  sins  and  sorrows — let  us  assure  them 
that  the  Son  of  David  even  now  rides  triumphant  and 
comes  near  to  His  temple — that  they  may  meet  him 
with  their  waving  palms,  and  holy  hosannas,  and 
cry,  “Blessed  is  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord!” — and  so  the  final  Palm  Sunday  of  the  ages 
shall  be  ushered  in  when  out  of  millions  of  mouths 
of  babes  and  sucklings,  new-born  into  the  kingdom, 
His  praise  shall  be  perfected! 


Part  V. 


NEW  SIGNS  AND  WONDERS 


*  .  *  i> 


»  .  * 


-  \ 

a  *  ...  .  ' 


I 


I 


I. 

THE  NEW  MIRACLES. 

The  law  of  correlation,  in  nature,  finds  every  ca¬ 
pacity  filled  and  every  craving  fed,  so  that  the  bird’s 
wing  and  fish’s  fin  become  prophecies  of  the  atmos¬ 
phere  and  the  water,  as  the  eye  and  ear  imply  sights 
and  sounds. 

The  same  law  holds  true  in  the  spiritual  world. 
The  capacity  and  craving  for  the  marvellous  and 
wonderful  is  akin  to  adoration,  which  is  a  higher, 
holier  form  of  admiration.  God’s  work  of  creation 
constantly  appeals  to  the  sense  of  the  marvellous; 
and,  ever  since  the  creation  of  the  world,  His  invisi¬ 
ble  attributes,  His  power  and  Godhead,  have  been 
clearly  seen.  Man’s  own  body  has  been  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made  and  constrains  him  to  adore 
his  Creator.  And  so  it  is  in  the  kingdom  of  provi¬ 
dence  and  grace.  It  needs  but  an  open  eye  to  see 
the  working  of  a  supernatural  Power :  the  abundant 
proofs  of  the  divine  handiwork  leave  all  observers 
“  without  excuse.” 

It  may  seem  without  warrant  and  even  irreverent 
to  apply  to  the  wonders  wrought  in  our  age  the  term 
“miracles  of  missions.”  But  a  miracle  is  no  more  or 
less  than  a  wonder  and  a  sign  combined : — a  wonder, 
for  if  not  out  of  the  common  course  it  would  attract 
no  attention;  a  sign,  for  if  not  contrary  to,  or  supe¬ 
rior  to,  the  working  of  natural  causes,  it  would  not 
show  to  man  a  higher  Hand  at  work.  With  such 
limitations  upon  the  term,  we  need  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  that  modern  missionary  history  furnishes  an 
array  of  miracles  which  form  the  greatest  treatise 
on  apologetics  ever  given  to  the  human  race. 

To  those  who  deny  or  doubt  a  divine  mind  and 
method  back  of  the  stage  of  events,  with  its  changes 

.  293 


294 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


of  scene  and  actors — to  all  who  are  sceptical  as  to  a 
presence  and  power  above  man  which  goes  with  the 
gospel,  the  one  sufficient  answer  is,  missions  to  the 
heathen ! 

Proofs  and  examples  of  this  have  not  been  wanting 
in  previous  pages,  as  seen  in  the  opening  of  doors, 
the  calling  of  apostles,  the  raising  up  of  converts  who 
have  proved  both  evangelists  and  martyrs.  Through 
the  whole  study  of  the  theme  thus  far  the  golden 
thread  of  a  divine  plan  and  performance  has  been 
traced.  He  who  holds  the  Key  of  David,  who  open- 
eth  and  no  man  shutteth,  and  shutteth  and  no  man 
openeth,  has  been  seen  unlocking  the  iron  gates  and 
bursting  bolts  and  bars.  The  new  Pentecosts  reveal 
the  Hand  that  alone  can  open  the  windows  of  heaven 
and  pour  out  the  blessing  which  comes  only  from 
above.  A  divine  Voice  alone  could  have  called  out 
labourers  from  an  apathetic  and  unwilling  Church, 
and  sent  them  forth  at  the  times  and  to  the  points 
most  needful,  and  only  He  whose  existence  and  pur¬ 
pose  span  the  ages  could  have  kept  up  this  unbroken 
succession  of  workmen.  God  has  been  visiting  his 
people  by  Voices  and  Visions,  and  training  them  for 
new  service ;  and  the  harvests  already  reaped  argue 
a  divine  husbandry.  All  our  paths  thus  far  have 
been  through  the  territory  where  Jehovah  has 
worked  wonders.  A  Pillar  of  cloud  and  fire  has  gone 
before  the  missionary  host — and  has  led  them  through 
deep  waters  on  dry  ground,  past  the  Burning  Bush, 
the  quaking  mount,  the  riven  rock,  the  routed  foe — 
and  all  the  way  a  table  has  been  set  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  and  man  has  eaten  angels*  food. 

But  a  large  class  of  divine  interpositions  and  won¬ 
der  workings,  not  so  far  considered,  demands  special 
notice,  if  the  Pleroma — the  fulness  of  the  presence 
and  power  of  God  in  modern  missions — is  to  be  seen. 

Two  great  miracles,  one  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  other  in  the  New,  are  the  evident  forecasts  both  of 
missionary  methods  and  success,  and  we  feel  persuaded 


THE  NEW  MIRACLES. 


295 


that  their  typical  meaning  has  not  been  apprehended. 
One  is  the  Fall  of  Jericho ,  the  other  is  the  Feeding 
of  the  Five  Thousand. 

Everything  about  the  Fall  of  Jericho  hints  its 
typical  character.  The  preparation  of  the  people, 
the  circumcision  at  Gilgal  and  the  rolling  away  of 
the  reproach — the  resumption  of  the  long-neglected 
Passover  Festival,  and  the  courageous  crossing  of 
the  Jordan — are  conditions  of  the  display  of  God’s 
power.  Then  Jericho  was  the  first  stronghold  which 
they  encountered  and  stands  for  world  conquest. 

Note  the  circumstances:  Exact  obedience  to  the 
divine  command,  circumscribing  the  doomed  city, 
marching  round  and  round  it,  till  thirteen  circuits 
were  accomplished  with  the  “ soles  of  their  feet,” 
which  was  the  prescribed  law  of  occupations  taking 
possession  by  appropriation.  How  obviously  the 
blowing  of  the  trumpets  represents  the  sevenfold 
proclamation  of  the  gospel,  the  jubilee  trump,  an¬ 
nouncing  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord ;  and  what 
was  that  shout  of  victory  before  the  walls  fell,  but  the 
anticipation  of  faith  counting  things  that  are  not  as 
though  they  were,  because  God  had  promised ! 
How  plainly  does  the  falling  of  those  walls  of  the 
doomed  city,  before  one  blow  was  struck,  teach  us 
dependence,  not  on  human  might  or  power,  but  on 
the  good  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  and  teach  us  that  the 
weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal  but  mighty 
through  God  to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds! 
How  inadequate  human  means  are!  God  must 
interpose  to  do  the  real  work  and  achieve  the  real 
victory  Himself.  He  will  not  give  His  glory  to 
another,  and  the  consummation  is  all  His  own. 

When,  from  this  miracle  which  stands  at  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  we  turn  to  Pente¬ 
cost,  which  strangely  prefaces  the  beginning  of 
gospel  wars  of  conquest,  we  see  Jericho  interpreted. 
Peter’s  sermon  was  the  blowing  of  the  rams’  horns, 
and  the  immediate  and  resistless  prostration  of  the 


296 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


walls  of  Jewish  bigotry,  self-righteousness  and  hard¬ 
heartedness, — was  the  divine  razing  to  the  ground  of 
barriers  to  gospel  entrance. 

Now  turn  to  the  great  New  Testament  miracle, 
when  the  five  loaves  and  two  fishes  fed  the  five 
thousand.  Here  is  the  second  great  lesson  of  obedi¬ 
ence  and  dependence.  A  world  is  to  be  reached  and 
every  creature  fed.  Our  force  is  inadequate. 
* 6  What  are  all  these  among  so  many  ?  ”  Nevertheless, 
“  give  ye  them  to  eat.”  District  the  world,  go  to 
work  on  a  definite  plan  of  distribution  of  field  and 
labourers — bring  what  you  have  of  money  and  means, 
Bibles  and  workers,  to  Jesus  for  His  blessing.  Take 
no  account  of  the  inadequacy  of  your  supplies,  but 
'do  exactly  as  He  bids  and,  with  what  you  have, 
undertake  for  Him,  expecting  Him  to  multiply  as 
you  divide.  How  often  is  this  lesson  taught  through¬ 
out  God’s  Word!  the  un wasting  barrel  of  meal  and 
flask  of  oil,  the  unexhausted  cruise  of  the  widow,*  the 
divine  independence  of  power  and  wealth  and  wisdom, 
of  numbers  and  natural  means, — all  teach  us  that 
things  impossible  with  men  are  possible  with 
God. 

What  greater  impulse  could  be  imparted  to  world¬ 
wide  missions  than  this — that  the  Church  should 
recognize  and  realize  that  it  is  her  salvation  to  be  in 
straits !  because  the  utter  despair  of  self-sufficiency 
teaches  her  that  her  sufficiency  is  of  God.  Our 
emergency  is  His  opportunity.  If  the  fewness  of 
labourers  drives  us  to  pray  the  Lord  of  the  harvest, 
that  He  will  thrust  forth  labourers  into  His  harvest- 
field,  He  will  be  heard,  saying,  “  Separate  Me  Bar¬ 
nabas  and  Saul,”  and  Barnabas  and  Saul  will  be 
found  ready.  If  our  poverty  of  resources  leads  us 
to  look  to  Him  who  alone  can  supply  the  ever  recur¬ 
ring  and  increasing  need;  if  the  vast  host  and 
mighty  power  of  our  foes  leads  us  to  spread  out  our 
case  before  the  Lord,  and  plead  for  His  might 

I.  Kings  xvii.  9-16 ;  II.  Kings  iv.  1-6. 


THE  NE IV  MIRA  CLES. 


297 


against  this  great  company — success  is  assured. 
And,  whenever  in  such  spirit,  the  crises  of  the  king¬ 
dom  are  met,  He  interposes! 

The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  records  God’s  sure  work¬ 
ing.  Its  pages  flush  with  the  glory,  flash  with  the 
lightnings,  and  peal  with  thunders  of  the  Eternal 
Throne.  Christ’s  promise  became  reality,  for,  as 
they  went  forth  and  preached  everywhere,  the  Lord 
wrought  with  and  confirmed  the  word  with  signs  fol¬ 
lowing.  It  became  plain  even  to  foes  that  God  was  with 
them.  His  seal  and  sanction  was  set  upon  their  words 
by  works  such  as  man  alone  never  wrought.  From 
Peter  at  Pentecost  to  Paul  at  Rome,  every  new  chap¬ 
ter  is  a  new  challenge  to  faith,  for  it  is  a  new  display 
of  divine  power.  Those  tongues  that  flamed  with 
Heaven’s  message;  those  sharp  sword-thrusts  of  the 
Spirit  by  which  penitent  sinners  were  pricked  in 
their  heart,  and  by  which  Stephen’s  stoners  were  cut  to 
the  heart;  the  healing  word  whereby  the  cripple,  lame 
from  his  mother’s  womb,  stood,  and  walked,  and 
leaped;  the  prayers  that  shook  the  assembly-room  at 
Jerusalem,  and  the  foundations  of  the  prison  at 
Philippi;  the  judgments  that  struck  the  sorcerer  blind 
and  the  liars  dead;  the  healing  virtue  that  invested 
with  power  Paul’s  person  and  Peter’s  shadow;  the 
vivid  visions  of  divine  things,  which  made  Stephen’s 
face  shine  as  an  angel’s,  and  Paul’s  heart  peaceful  in 
shipwreck;  the  close  contact  with  God  that  taught 
Philip  where  to  go  and  what  to  do,  and  caught  him 
away  with  sudden  rapture ;  the  personal  appearances 
of  Christ  to  the  dying  martyr  and  the  living  perse¬ 
cutor;  Paul’s  sudden  blindness  and  as  sudden 
restoration  to  sight;  the  raising  of  Dorcas  at  Lydda 
and  Eutychus  at  Troas;  Peter’s  prophetic  vision, 
and  Agabus’  prophetic  warning;  the  angel  visit  to 
Cornelius  in  the  palace  and  to  Peter  in  the  prison ; 
the  Apostle’s  deliverance  from  the  sword  of  Herod, 
and  the  tyrant’s  deliverance  unto  the  sword  of  the 
avenging  angel ;  the  supernatural  Voice  that  at  Antioch 


298 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


separated  Paul  to  missions,  and  at  Corinth  assured  him 
of  safety;  the  healing  of  the  cripple  at  Lystra  and 
the  damsel  at  Philippi;  the  outpourings  of  the  Spirit 
at  Samaria,  Cesarea,  Ephesus  as  well  as  Jerusalem! 
who  can  walk  along  this  highway  of  marvels  with¬ 
out  seeing  everywhere  the  signs  and,  tracks  of 
God’s  footsteps!  We  feel  that  the  place  is  holy 
ground,  the  place  of  the  Burning  Bush,  the  Pillar  of 
cloud  and  fire,  the  Angel  of  the  Lord.  We  are  hur¬ 
ried  on  amid  a  continual  and  continuous  blaze  of 
glory,  for  we  no  sooner  emerge  from  the  startling 
splendour  of  one  miracle  before  we  enter  the  pre¬ 
cincts  of  another. 

The  whole  study  of  the  theme  seems  to  bring  us 
face  to  face  with  a  divine  Wonder-Worker,  and  the 
history  is  the  pattern  of  His  thought  and  plan  wrought 
into  the  fabric  of  events.  The  new  Pentecosts  are 
His  bestowments  of  blessing,  as  purely  from  God  as 
the  rain  is  from  the  heavens;  the  doors  which  open  are 
His  gifts  of  opportunity  and  facility;  in  the  modern 
apostles  and  evangelists  His  appointment  of  spheres 
and  service  appears ;  in  the  control  of  His  providence 
all  creation  is  but  a  host — the  armies  that  obey  His 
bugle  call;  and  in  His  gracious  transformations  the 
perpetual  miracle  is  seen  which  attests  the  living  God. 
Christ  is  on  the  throne,  and  at  the  same  time  on  the 
battle-field.  We  seem  to  see  the  star  of  universal 
empire  flashing  on  His  breast,  and  the  white  horse  of 
conquest  makes  the  battle-field  quake  beneath  His 
awful  tread. 

Have  the  days  of  miracles  passed ,  or  are  we  still 
moving  amid  signs  and  wonders  ?  If  the  age  of  mis¬ 
sions  does  remind  us  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  in 
its  display  of  certain  divine  power,  it  matters  little 
whether  or  not  the  mode  of  God’s  working  is  the 
same.  The  fact ,  not  the  form ,  concerns  us.  The 
signs  of  the  earlier  age  may  have  given  place  to  the 
signs  of  a  later  age.  God  is  not  poor  in  resources; 
His  fund  of  force  is  not  exhausted;  He  needs  not  to 


THE  NE  W  MIRA  CLES. 


299 


repeat  Himself,  nor  does  He;  His  infinite  versatility 
assures  infinite  variety. 

Moreover,  it  is  probable  that,  for  our  new  age,  the 
signs  and  wonders  wrought  will  be  different,  if  they 
are  to  be  equally  convincing  and  conclusive,  and 
equally  suited  to  the  present  purpose  of  God  and  the 
present  needs  of  man.  In  His  kingdom  of  grace,  as 
of  the  nature,  the  lozver  ever  gives  place  to  the 
higher .  And,  as  Dr.  Upham  says:  “  Through  this 
invincible  law,  the  lower  physical  miracles,  of  the 
time  when  our  Lord  was  on  earth,  gave  way  before 
the  coming  of  a  higher  order  of  spiritual  miracles.’ * 
The  former  belonged  to  a  receding  dispensation ;  and 
in  these  things  is  the  answer  to  the  question:  “  Have 
miracles  ceased?  ”  Miracles  have  passed  on  from  a 
lower  to  a  higher  sphere;  from  the  seen  to  the 
unseen;  from  the  world  of  nature  to  the  world  of 
spirit,  where  spiritual  miracles  are  daily,  hourly, 
wrought  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  answer  to  the  prayer 
of  faith — miracles  far  greater  than  those  which  typi¬ 
fied  and  prophesied  of  the  later  and  higher  miracles. 
Even  if  the  earlier  signs  do  occasionally  reappear,  to 
clamour  for  them  is  to  long  for  and  hold  fast  what 
belongs  to  a  finished  age,  instead  of  going  onward 
and  upward. 

Careful  research  into  the  history  of  modern  missions 
leaves  on  the  mind  this  ineradicable  impression  and 
impress:  that  the  facts ,  abundantly  furnished  and 
attested — facts  as  much  above  denial  or  doubt  as  the 
most  certain  events  of  history — simply  defy  explana¬ 
tion  without  admitting  a  divine  factor.  These  facts 
are  not  few,  scattered,  exceptional,  isolated ;  not 
done  in  a  corner  and  lacking  adequate  authentic  wit¬ 
ness.  They  are  conspicuous  and  confident;  they 
move  in  such  masses  that  the  march  of  their  host 
compels  their  recognition.  In  this  conviction  the 
most  devout  and  acute  observers  of  missionarv  his- 

J 

tory  are  agreed. 

From  these  modern  signs  and  wonders  a  few  rep - 


300 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


resentative  examples  may  be  selected,  drawn  from 
all  varieties  of  sphere  and  experience.  And  the  few 
will  suffice;  when  testimony  has  confirmation  from 
agreeing  witnesses,  the  mere  number  of  witnesses 
adds  but  little  assurance.  And,  if  competent  testi¬ 
mony  does  not  carry  conviction,  it  is  vain  to  pour 
more  light  upon  any  eye  that  only  meets  more  illu¬ 
mination  by  closer  contraction. 

Mission  history  is  both  a  demonstration  and  illus¬ 
tration  of  One  who  is  present  to  preside  and  provide 
— a  divine  Director  and  Controller.  There  is  an  in¬ 
visible  Actor,  whose  will  is  wrought  out  in  the 
changes  of  events  and  the  control  of  inferior  actors. 
These  instances  and  evidences  of  His  interposition 
sweep  round  the  whole  circle  of  the  continents  and 
the  whole  cycle  of  the  ages.  We  may  trace  God’s 
intervention  particularly  in  the  following  particu¬ 
lars: 

We  may  see  Him  opening  doors  of  access,  and  re¬ 
moving  barriers  at  critical  points  and  periods.  In 
some  cases  there  has  been  a  sudden  subsidence  of 
barriers  which  can  only  be  likened  to  the  sinking  of 
the  land  so  as  to  permit  the  overflow  of  the  sea,  as 
in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  in  1819,  and  Papal  France 
in  1870. 

We  may  see  Him  preparing  the  work  for  the  work¬ 
man  and  the  workman  for  the  work,  where  such  fore¬ 
sight  was  impossible  to  man;  controlling  invention 
and  discovery  so  as  to  develop  civilization  according 
to  a  preconceived  plan,  and  furnishing  new  instru¬ 
ments  and  agencies  in  a  marked  order  of  succession. 
We  may  see  Him  obviously  overruling  human  mis¬ 
takes  and  failures,  frustrating  the  designs  of  enemies 
and  persecutors;  setting  the  limits  and  determining 
the  direction  of  human  lives  and  purposes. 

We  may  watch  Him  answering  prayer  and  turning 
great  crises  to  which  man  was  utterly  unequal,  and 
when  there  was  despair  of  all  human  help. 

We  may,  most  of  all,  see  God’s  power  indirectly 


THE  NE IV  MIRA  CLES. 


301 


modifying  existing  evils,  and  directly  transforming 
both  individuals  and  whole  communities  until,  as  there 
was  subsidence  of  barriers,  there  is  also  an  upheaval 
of  the  entire  social  level. 

All  this  is  no  human  evolution :  it  is  a  divine  revo¬ 
lution .  The  strategy  is  that  of  a  General-in-Chief 
whose  eye  commands  at  a  glance  the  whole  field  of 
the  world,  and  the  whole  history  of  man,  and  to 
whom  the  future  is  as  present  to  view  as  the  past. 
Amid  the  drift  in  the  direction  of  a  natural  scepti¬ 
cism,  accelerated  by  the  influence  of  infidel  opinion, 
nothing  more  restrains  and  corrects  such  tendencies 
than  the  unanswerable  argument  for  a  personal  God 
supplied  by  the  history  of  modern  missions.  He 
who  carefully  examines  it  feels  that  he  treads  on 
enchanted  ground,  whose  mysteries  compel  a  divine 
solution. 

Of  course,  we  are  now  dealing  with  matters  whose 
very  nature  precludes  mathematical  proofs ;  not  with 
the  science  of  quantity,  but  of  moral  probability, 
which  demands  moral  evidence.  And,  yet,  practical 
certainty  is  attainable,  for  moral  proofs  are  conclusive 
when  properly  used.  For  example,  the  law  of  coin- 
cidence  pertains  to  a  department  of  moral  evidence. 
God  confirms  faith  in  His  interpositions  by  bringing 
together  occurrences  which  so  correspond  as  to 
exhibit  an  intentional  mutual  fitness.  Hence,  for 
example,  Prayer  and  its  Answer  often  so  fit  each 
other,  in  time,  place  and  exact  correspondence,  as  to 
make  certain  that  God  and  the  praying  soul  are  in 
contact.  And  this  principle  must  be  admitted  if  we 
are  to  recognize  signs  and  wonders,  not  appealing  to 
our  senses  but  to  our  reason.  The  greatest  signs  of 
God’s  presence  in  Apostolic  days  were  found  not  in 
miracles  addressing  the  eye  and  ear,  but  in  the  won¬ 
ders  of  such  coincidence.  When  the  first  fish  that 
Peter  caught  contained  in  its  mouth  the  exact  sum 
necessary  to  pay  the  tribute  due  from  Christ  and  him¬ 
self,  according  to  Christ’s  word,  the  coincidence  com- 


m 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


pelled  conviction  that  it  was  no  accident.  When  the 
tragedy  of  the  crucifixion  was  attended  by  six  hours  of 
dense  darkness,  and  an  earthquake ;  and  when  the  dy¬ 
ing  cry,  “  It  is  finished,”  and  the  violent  rending  of  the 
Temple  Veil  took  place  at  the  same  instant,  even  a 
Roman  centurion  could  not  but  say,  ‘  ‘  Truly  this  was 
the  Son  of  God!”  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  full 
of  these  coincidences,  which  betray  an  invisible  Hand 
guiding  affairs. 

Philip  is  led  to  go  down  to  a  desert  road  at  the  very 
time  when  the  eunuch  is  inquiring  as  to  the  true 
faith,  and  Philip’s  approach  is  at  the  very  moment 
when  he  is  reading  aloud  the  very  verse  in  prophecy 
which  furnished  the  best  text  for  a  gospel  sermon. 
While  Peter  had  a  vision  on  the  housetop,  the  mes¬ 
sengers  from  Cesarea  were  knocking  at  the  gate  to  ask 
Trim  to  go  to  the  Romans  whom  he  had  thought  unclean; 
and  while  many  are  gathered  praying  for  him,  he  is 
delivered  from  prison  and  the  axe  of  Herod’s  execu¬ 
tioner.  The  death  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  coming 
at  the  instant  of  an  act  of  lying  and  perjury  against 
the  Holy  Spirit,  showed  that  God’s  judgment  was  at 
work;  as  Herod’s  awful  death  at  the  very  time  of  his 
accepting  divine  honours,  made  plain  that  God  had 
smittefi  him.  Paul’s  conversion  at  the  very  climax  of 
his  triumph  as  persecutor,  and  when  he  was  just  enter¬ 
ing  Damascus,  left  no  doubt  that  he  had  seen  Jesus  in 
the  way.  These  are  a  few  instances  of  that  coincidence 
which  establishes  a  probability  amounting  to  practi¬ 
cal  certainty,  that  something  more  than  the  chance 
of  accident  had  been  controlling  history.  Thoughtless 
or  uncandid  persons  often  foolishly  demand  on  moral 
subjects  what  they  call,  “mathematical  proofs,” 
forgetting  that  such  proofs  are  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
impossible,  and  we  must  look  for  quite  another  order 
of  demonstration.  But,  when  examined  in  a  proper 
method  and  spirit,  it  will  become  scarcely  less  cer¬ 
tain  that  God  is,  and  that  He  is  the  actual  governor 
in  missionary  history,  than  it  is  that  two  and  two 


THE  NE  W  MIRA  CLES. 


303 


make  four,  or  that  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle 
equal  two  right  angles. 

These  “miracles  of  missions”  are  so  numerous 
and  various  that  we  are  again  compelled  to  resort 
both  to  classification  and  selection.  They  fall  natu¬ 
rally  into  two  classes — miracles  of  providence  and  mir¬ 
acles  of  grace .  The  first  includes  all  those  interposi¬ 
tions  of  God  which  concern  the  control  of  individual 
lives,  or  governmental  acts — which  have  to  do  with 
the  general  shaping  of  events,  with  protecting  and 
providing  for  His  own  people,  avenging  their  wrongs, 
destroying  their  foes,  or  raising  up  for  them  friends 
and  helpers  in  crises.  The  miracles  of  grace  include 
all  direct  or  indirect  influence  of  His  word  and  Spirit 
in  working  transformation  of  personal  character  or 
popular  life,  and  particularly  in  accomplishing  great 
social  revolutions  which  turn  the  world  upside  down 
and  imply  an  energy  superior  to  man. 

When  Paul  and  Barnabas  returned  to  Antioch  from 
their  first  mission  tour,  they  rehearsed  in  the  ears  of 
the  Church  all  that  God  had  done  with  them  and  how 
He  had  opened  the  doors  of  faith  unto  the  nations: 
and,  as  Paul  went  up  to  the  first  council  at  Jerusalem, 
he  declared  what  things  God  had  wrought  by  his 
ministry,  and  “  when  they  heard  that  they  glorified 
the  Lord.”  Mark  the  repeated  emphasis  upon  the 
Lord's  doings — what  He  had  done,  how  He  had 
opened  the  doors,  what  He  had  wrought — that  all 
glory  might  be  His.  There  has  never  been  a  truly 
great  missionary  since  Paul,  who  has  not  magnified 
the  Power  of  God  in  the  fruits  of  his  work, — who  has 
not  known  and  felt  that  what  results  he  has  seen 
wrought  were  accountable  for  on  no  other  philosophy 
— and  this  is  the  most  conspicuous  testimony  unani¬ 
mously  borne  by  the  most  devout  missionaries. 

Just  where  such  recognition  of  dependence  on  God 
and  such  confidence  in  His  power  have  most  abounded, 
the  grandest  demonstrations  of  His  presence  have 
been  seen.  Pastor  Gossner,  at  sixty-three,  stopped 


304 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


ringing  the  door-bell  of  millionaires  and  rang  only  the 
door-bell  of  heaven — and  he  put  into  the  field  one 
hundred  missionaries  who  gathered  30,000  converts. 
Not  what  great  things  I  have  done  or  suffered  for  my 
Lord,  but  what  great  things  the  Lord  has  wrought 
for  me, — that  is  the  boast  of  the  true  missionary. 


II. 


NEW  OPPORTUNITIES  AND  PREPARA¬ 
TIONS. 

Clear  signs  of  a  supernatural  Providence  are  seen 
in  the  new  opportunities  of  modern  history.  The 
hidden  hand  of  God  has  manifestly  touched  the 
affairs  of  men  in  the  unlocking  and  opening  of  long 
shut  doors. 

The  poet  Dryden  crowned  the  year  1666  as 
“  Annus  Mirabilis,”  because  made  forever  mem¬ 
orable  by  such  events  as  the  great  fire  in  London, 
and  the  naval  war  with  the  Dutch  and  their  allies. 
The  Marquis  of  Worcester  entitled  the  sixteenth 
century  the  “  century  of  invention.”  And  a  wonder¬ 
ful  hundred  years  they  were  that  saw  the  globe 
circumnavigated  by  the  ships  of  Magellan,  that 
covered  the  era  of  Charles  the  Fifth  and  Elizabeth, 
of  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  Leo  Tenth,  of  Luther  and 
the  Reformation,  of  the  wars  of  France  and  the  rise 
of  the  Dutch  Republic,  of  the  Diets  of  Worms  and 
of  Spires  and  of  Augsburg,  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
and  the  final  triumph  of  the  Protestant  cause,  and 
the  birth  of  religious  liberty. 

But,  in  every  respect,  even  as  the  century  of 
invention,  the  nineteenth  century  has  far  outshone 
the  sixteenth;  and  as  to  the  “  annus  mirabilis,”  that 
one  year,  1858,  is  probably  the  most  wonderful  year 
in  the  annals  of  history,  for  the  rapidity  with  which 
on  every  side  new  doors  opened  for  access  commer¬ 
cially,  politically  and  religiously,  to  the  whole 
world.  During  that  year,  Japan,  after  two  centuries 
of  sealed  ports,  made  treaty  with  Great  Britain; 
China  enlarged  vastly  the  rights  conceded  sixteen 
years  before;  India  became  part  of  Britain’s  world¬ 
wide  empire,  and  zenanas  were  penetrated  by  Chris- 

305 


306 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


tian  women ;  Italy  laid  the  basis  of  her  new  era  of 
freedom ;  Mexico  threw  open  her  doors  to  the 
Protestant  missionary — all  this  and  much  more 
within  a  twelvemonth ! 

In  that  one  “  annus  mirabilis,”  two-thirds  of  the 
entire  population  of  the  globe  were  suddenly  brought 
within  the  reach  of  the  missionary  who  preaches  a 
full  gospel  and  carries  an  open  Bible.  It  was  that 
same  year  that  the  “  week  of  prayer  ”  began,  upon 
recommendation  of  the  missionaries  in  Lahore,  and 
how  quickly  came  the  answer!  From  that  year, 
missions  entered  upon  an  entirely  new  career.  On 
the  walls  of  history  a  divine  Finger  wrote,  as  in 
flaming  capitals,  certain  words  which  should  be  the 
motto  of  all  future  enterprise  for  God: 

“  Behold  I  have  set  before  thee  an  open  door.” 

“The  fulness  of  time  is  now  come.” 

“The  King’s  business  requireth  haste.” 

“  The  field  is  the  world.” 

“Occupy  till  I  come.” 

One  must  read  the  story  of  missions  with  veiled 
eyes  who  sees  no  miracles  of  providential  prepara¬ 
tion. 

When  the  Thaddeus ,  in  1820,  furled  sail  in  the 
harbour  of  Oahu  with  that  pioneer  band  of  eighteen, 
who  went  to  begin  the  long,  and,  as  some  thought, 
hopeless  fight  with  a  degraded  and  brutal  paganism, 
what  was  their  astonishment  to  find  that,  before  they 
landed,  not  only  had  God  opened  to  them  a  door  of 
access,  but  He  had  moved  a  pagan  priest  and  a 
pagan  king  to  strike  the  first  blow  at  Hawaiian  idols! 
Obookiah,  the  native  lad,  who  in  his  impatience  to 
get  ashore  had  gone  off  in  a  small  boat,  had 
brought  back  to  them,  while  yet  on  board,  the  news: 
“Oahu’s  idols  are  no  more!”  And  they  could  only 
make  the  vault  of  heaven  ring  with  their  praise: 
Sing,  O  heavens !  for  the  Lord  hath  done  it ! 

Was  there  no  meaning  in  this  opening  history  of 


NEW  OPPORTUNITIES. 


307 


the  work  of  the  American  Board  in  those  Pacific 
waters?  Who  was  it  that,  before  these  missionaries 
had  set  foot  on  these  islands,  and  not  only  without 
their  agency  but  without  their  knowledge,  had 
demolished  the  barriers  of  a  thousand  years  and  left 
before  them  a  wide  and  effectual  door?  They  came 
to  Jericho,  and  before  they  had  even  marched  around 
it,  the  walls  are  found  fallen  flat,  and  the  stronghold 
awaiting  easy  occupation.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  this  mission  was  undertaken  by  that  great  mis¬ 
sionary  society  as  a  sort  of  test-work,  in  which  the 
will  of  God  might  be  seen  as  to  future  and  similar 
enterprises,  the  whole  of  this  unparalleled  begin¬ 
ning  reminds  us  of  Joshua’s  interview  with  the  Cap¬ 
tain  of  the  Lord’s  host,  who  assured  him  in  advance 
that  He  was  there  to  lead  them  on  to  victory. 

Japan,  almost  at  the  other  limit  of  the  half  century 
thus  begun,  may  be  cited  as  an  example  of  providen¬ 
tial  preparation.  If  ever  a  divine  plan  and  purpose 
were  to  be  seen,  surely  it  is  here.  Was  it  an  accident 
or  mere  incident  that,  after  two  centuries  of  exclu¬ 
sion  and  proscription,  Christianity  should  find  entrance 
to  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun,  at  the  very  time  when  a 
great  social  and  political  upheaval  had  unsettled  the 
old  foundations,  and  offered  opportunity  to  establish 
a  new  order!  In  no  previous  time  of  Japanese  his¬ 
tory — certainly  not  since  the  year  1600 — had  such  an 
hour  of  crisis  come.  And  hence  the  progress  of  this 
Island  Empire  toward  national  transformation  and 
evangelization  has  been  more  rapid  than  anything 
known  since  the  accession  of  Constantine. 

The  preparation  which  Robert  W.  McAll  found 
in  France  for  his  simple  evangelistic  work,  can  be 
compared  to  nothing  but  a  sudden  subsidence  of  bar¬ 
riers,  such  as  we  sometimes  see  when  some  seismic 
convulsion  sinks  the  land  below  sea  level  and  lets  the 
waters  rush  in  upon  the  submerged  territory. 

When  McAll  went  to  the  French  capital  in  1872, 
the  war  with  Germany  had  left  desolation  behind  it. 


308 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Anarchy  and  violence  had  brought  a  new  experience 
of  the  revolution  of  eighty  years  before,  with  its 
cruelties,  bloodshed,  lawlessness  and  godlessness. 
Even  atheistic  France  revolted  from  the  terrors  of  a 
society  without  God.  It  was  a  period  of  transition. 
The  land  of  La  Fayette  was  breaking  her  long  allegi¬ 
ance  with  Papal  Rome;  Gambetta  had  thundered  out 
his  anathema  against  “  clericalism  ”  as  “  the  foe  of 
France;”  and  the  nation,  weary  of  a  religion  which 
was  a  wedlock  of  formalism  and  superstition,  and 
whose  offspring  was  hollow  ceremonial  and  utter 
recklessness,  was  drifting  toward  utter  denial  of  God 
and  of  all  godliness. 

Just  at  this  time  Me  All  came  to  Paris  and  met  that 
“man  of  Macedonia”  opposite  the  wine-shop  in 
Belleville,  who,  in  unmistakable  words,  said:  “Come 
over  and  help  us!  ”  That  whole  mission  work  is  one 
of  the  miracles  of  modern  Providence,  raising  up  and 
thrusting  into  the  field  the  right  man,  at  the  right 
hour,  in  the  right  place !  The  round  peg  dropped 
into  the  round  hole,  and  the  man  and  his  work  fitted 
each  other  perfectly.  Just  when  it  was  needed  and 
prepared  for,  France  got,  for  the  workingmen  and 
the  priest-ridden  masses,  a  simple  gospel,  Unencum¬ 
bered  with  churchly  methods,  without  priestly  forms 
and  without  price. 

Instances  such  as  these  are  sufficient  to  convince 
even  unbelievers  that  God’s  Hand  is  in  missionary 
history.  And,  even  if  any  one  of  the  many  exam¬ 
ples  of  such  providential  preparation  were  insufficient 
to  sustain  the  argument  for  such  divine  Providence, 
their  united  testimony  is  overwhelming;  they  are  like 
the  threads  which,  separately  unable  to  bear  a  heavy 
strain,  may,  when  wound  into  one  strand,  defy  any 
power  to  break  them. 


III. 


PROVIDENTIAL  PRESERVATIONS. 

Missionary  history  abounds  in  marvels  of  preserva¬ 
tion .  God  does  not  promise,  even  to  the  most  faithful 
of  His  servants,  absolute  immunity  from  disease  and 
death.  It  may  be  best  that  witness  should  be  sealed 
in  blood  as  well  as  seasoned  with  suffering.  The 
servant  is  not  above  his  Master,  and  the  first  martyr 
may  have  done  more  to  save  souls  by  his  death  than 
Paul  did  by  his  life ;  but  God  has  often  stayed  the 
hand  of  man,  and  many  an'  imperilled  witness  to 
Christ  has  heard  the  same  voice  that  Paul  heard  at 
Corinth:  “  Be  not  afraid,  but  speak,  and  hold  thy 
peace;  for  I  am  with  thee,  and  no  man  shall  set  on 
thee  to  hurt  thee.” 

When  Martin  Luther  was  asked  at  Augsburg: 
“Now,  with  Pope  and  cardinals,  priests  and  kings 
all  against  you,  what  will  you  do?”  he  answered, 
“  Put  myself  under  the  shelter  of  Him  who  said,  ‘  I 
will  never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake  thee !  *  ”  Having 
the  same  spirit  of  faith,  when  Robert  Moffat’s  life 
was  threatened  at  Kuruman,  he  bared  his  breast  to 
his  assailants,  and  calmly  replied:  “Strike,  if  you 
will!  but  my  mind  is  made  up;  I  stay  among  you.” 
The  life  of  John  G.  Paton,  that  has  recently  thrilled 
all  lovers  of  missions  with  its  story  of  heroism, 
records  perhaps  fifty  cases  in  which  his  life  was 
threatened,  or  death  by  violence  overhung  him ;  yet 
in  marvellous  ways  deliverance  came,  so  that  his  pre¬ 
servation  seemed  like  a  perpetual  miracle. 

It  is  now  nearly  thirty-eight  years  since  on 
August  19,  1856,  Rev.  William  C.  Burns  arrived  at 
Chao-chow-fu,  in  South  China,  on  his  sacred  mission 
of  evangelization  and  colportage  work.  Suddenly 
arrested,  and  the  same  night  brought  before  the  dis- 

309 


310 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


trict  magistrate,  it  was  decided  to  send  him  to 
Canton.  The  relations  of  China  with  foreign 
countries  was  disturbed.  The  Tai-ping  rebellion 
threw  China  into  a  state  of  chaos ;  and  Burns  arrived 
on  the  eve  of  a  war  which,  that  year,  broke  out 
between  Britain  and  China.  Had  he  come  to 
Canton  only  a  little  later,  when  the  events  connected 
with  Commissioner  Yeh  were  in  progress,  death 
would  probably  have  been  the  result.  In  the  diary 
of  Mrs.  Stewart  Sandemann,  of  Perth,  Scotland, 
under  date  of  December  28th,  that  same  year,  is  this 
entry:  “  Mr.  Burns  was  safely  kept  through  his 
arrest  and  imprisonment  in  China.  Comparing  the 
dates  I  find  that  we  were  met  in  prayer  for  him 
during  his  dangerous  journey  under  guard  of  the 
Chinese  officials !” 

For  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  years,  the 
Moravian  missionary  ship  has  sailed  between  Lon¬ 
don  and  Labrador,  over  those  exceptionally  stormy 
waters  and  amid  fields  of  icebergs,  yet  with  such 
freedom  from  accident  that  Lord  Gambia  declared 
the  continued  preservation  of  this  vessel  to  be  the 
most  remarkable  occurrence  in  maritime  history  that 
had  ever  come  to  his  knowledge.  During  more  than 
one  hundred  and  sixty  years,  during  which  about 
twenty-five  hundred  Moravian  missionaries  have 
sailed  for  foreign  lands,  in  only  eleven  cases  has  any 
loss  of  life  come  by  shipwreck;  and,  of  all  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  missionaries  sent  home  to  Europe,  not  one, 
says  Dr.  Storrow,  has  perished  at  sea. 

Missionaries  in  Africa,  India  and  the  Indian  Archi¬ 
pelago,  have,  in  hundreds  of  cases,  had  to  face  perils 
amid  beasts  of  prey  and  deadly  serpents;  is  there 
one  instance  recorded  of  death  by  such  means? 
Livingstone  was  delivered  from  destruction  three 
times  in  one  day,  and  once  his  arm  was  crushed  and 
he  was  shaken  into  insensibility  by  a  lion.  To  the 
first  missionaries  to  the  Fijians  deliverance  often 
came  when  murderous  foes  were  surrounding  them, 


PROVIDENTIAL  PRESERVATIONS. 


311 


and  their  only  weapon  was  prayer.  Kapaio,  a 
native  of  the  New  Hebrides,  confessed  that  he 
watched  to  waylay  Dr.  Geddie,  and  when,  with  club 
in  hand,  he  had  him  in  his  power,  he  became  unable 
to  deal  the  blow  at  the  crisis  when  the  man  he  hated 
and  had  followed  in  order  to  kill,  was  at  his  mercy. 
He  confessed  that  a  strange,  new  sensation  came 
over  him  and  convinced  him  that  a  higher  power 
held  him  back. 

A  little  while  ago  a  company  of  Breecks,  a  low, 
fierce  tribe  of  Karens,  made  a  raid  on  a  Christian 
village,  and  carried  off  as  captives,  two  boys  and  a 
girl.  They  said,  “  Now  we  will  see;  if  the  Christians* 
God  delivers  these  captives  out  of  our  hands  we  will 
believe  in  Him,  and  all  become  Christians;  but  if 
their  God  cannot  deliver  them,  we  will  go  over  and 
take  more  captives.” 

Just  at  this  juncture  Dr.  Bunker  arrived  at  the 
village  where  all  had  been  praying  for  help.  They 
quickly  told  him,  and  he  said:  “  Well,  this  is  a  case 
of  God  versus  the  Devil,”  and  he  felt  strong  to  say, 
“  God  will  deliver  them;  keep  on  praying .”  He  sent 
a  message  demanding  the  release  of  the  cap¬ 
tives,  and  got  word  back,  “Come  on;  get  them 
if  you  can;  we  have  guns.”  He  sent  then 
what  he  called  his  ultimatum:  “If  you  do  not 
deliver  up  those  captives  we  will  leave  you  in  the 
hands  of  our  God,  who  can  and  will  deal  with  you.” 
Meanwhile  he  and  the^  Christians  prayed  mightily. 
His  messengers  met  the  Breecks  on  the  road  bring¬ 
ing  back  one  of  the  captives.  He  then  selected  one 
of  his  preachers  and  fourteen  followers  to  go  un¬ 
armed  for  the  other  two. 

When  they  got  to  the  village  they  did  not  say  a 
word  to  any  of  the  tribe,  but  planted  themselves  in 
the  road.  The  preacher  took  out  his  hymn-book  and 
read  a  hymn,  which  they  sang;  then  he  read  a  por¬ 
tion  of  Scripture  and  preached,  then  prayed,  and  by 
that  time  the  villagers  brought  the  other  captives  to 


312 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


them  and  said:  “Now  take  them,  and  be  gone.” 
This,  of  course,  made  a  great  stir  among  the  Chris¬ 
tians,  and  led  them  to  expect  a  great  ingathering 
from  the  Breecks.  The  captives  told  them  that  a 
brother  of  the  chief  who  stole  the  captives,  himself 
an  awfully  wicked  man,  talked  strongly  about  the 
wickedness  of  the  deed,  and  the  wife  of  the  chief 
begged  her  husband  to  make  peace  while  he  could, — 
showing  how  God  was  working  to  bring  about 
answers  to  prayer. 

Let  Mr.  J.  Hudson  Taylor  tell  for  himself  the 
story  of  his  first  voyage  to  China. 

He  says:  “The  voyage  was  a  very  tedious  one. 
We  lost  a  good  deal  of  time  on  the  equator  from 
calms;  and  when  we  finally  reached  the  Eastern 
Archipelago,  were  again  detained  from  the  same 
cause.  Usually  a  breeze  would  spring  up  soon  after 
sunset,  and  last  until  about  dawn.  The  utmost  use 
was  made  of  it,  but  during  the  day  we  lay  still,  with 
flapping  sails,  often  drifting  back  and  losing  a  good 
deal  of  the  advantage  we  had  gained  during  the 
night. 

“  This  happened  notably  on  one  occasion,  when  we 
were  in  dangerous  proximity  to  the  north  of  New 
Guinea.  Saturday  night  had  brought  us  to  a  point 
some  thirty  miles  off  the  land;  but  during  the  Sun¬ 
day  morning  service,  which  was  held  on  deck,  I  could 
not  fail  to  notice  that  the  captain  looked  troubled, 
and  frequently  went  over  to  the  side  of  the  ship. 
When  the  service  was  ended,  I  learned  from  him  the 
cause — a  four-knot  current  was  carrying  us  rapidly 
towards  some  sunken  reefs,  and  we  were  already  so 
near  that  it  seemed  improbable  that  we  should  get 
through  the  afternoon  in  safety.  After  dinner  the 
long  boat  was  put  out,  and  all  hands  endeavoured, 
without  success,  to  turn  the  ship’s  head  from  the 
shore.  As  we  drifted  nearer  we  could  plainly  see  the 
natives  rushing  about  the  sands  and  lighting  fires 
every  here  and  there.  The  captain’s  hornbook 


PRO  VIDENT1AL  PRESER  VA  TIONS. 


313 


informed  him  that  these  people  were  cannibals,  so 
that  our  position  was  not  a  little  alarming. 

4  ‘  After  standing  together  on  the  deck  for  some  time 
in  silence,  the  captain  said  to  me,  ‘  Well,  we  have 
done  everything  that  can  be  done ;  we  can  only  await 
the  result/  A  thought  occurred  to  me,  and  I 
replied,  ‘No,  there  is  one  thing  we  have  not  done 
yet/  ‘What  is  it?*  he  queried.  ‘Four  of  us  on 
board  are  Christians/  I  answered  (the  Swedish  car¬ 
penter  and  our  coloured  steward,  with  the  captain 
and  myself);  ‘  let  us  each  retire  to  his  own  cabin, 
and  in  agreed  prayer  ask  the  Lord  to  give  us  imme¬ 
diately  a  breeze.  He  can  as  easily  send  it  now  as  at 
sunset/ 

“  The  captai#  complied  with  this  proposal.  I  went 
and  spoke  to  the  other  two  men,  and  after  prayer 
with  the  carpenter  we  all  four  retired  to  wait  upon 
God.  I  had  a  good  but  very  brief  season  in  prayer, 
and  then  felt  so  satisfied  that  our  request  was  granted 
that  I  could  not  continue  asking,  and  very  soon  went 
up  again  on  deck.  The  first  officer,  a  godless  man, 
was  in  charge.  I  went  over  and  asked  him  to  let 
down  the  clews  or  corners  of  the  mainsail,  which 
had  been  drawn  up  in  order  to  lessen  the  useless 
flapping  of  the  sail  against  the  rigging.  He  answered, 
‘  What  would  be  the  good  of  that?*  I  told  him  we 
had  been  asking  a  wind  from  God,  that  it  was  coming 
immediately,  and  we  were  so  near  the  reef  by  this 
time  that  there  was  not  a  minute  to  lose.  With  a  look 
of  incredulity  and  contempt,  he  said  with  an  oath 
that  he  would  rather  see  a  wind  than  hear  of  it !  But 
while  he  was  speaking  I  watched  his  eye,  and  followed 
it  up  to  the  royal  (the  topmost  sail),  and  there,  sure 
enough,  the  corner  of  the  sail  was  beginning  to 
tremble  in  the  coming  breeze.  ‘  Don’t  you  see  the 
wind  is  coming?  Look  at  the  royal!  *  I  exclaimed. 
‘  No,  it  is  only  a  cat’s-paw/  he  rejoined  (a  mere 
puff  of  wind).  ‘Cat’s-paw  or  not/  I  cried,  ‘pray 
let  down  the  mainsail,  and  let  us  have  the  benefit !  ’ 


314 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


‘  ‘  This  he  was  not  slow  to  do.  In  another  minute  the 
heavy  tread  of  the  men  on  the  deck  brought  up  the 
captain  from  his  cabin  to  see  what  was  the  matter, 
and  saw  that  the  breeze  had  indeed  come.  In  a  few 
minutes  we  were  ploughing  our  way  at  six  or  seven 
knots  an  hour  through  the  water,  and  the  multitude 
of  naked  savages  whom  we  had  seen  on  the  beach  had 
no  wreckage  that  night.  We  were  soon  out  of  dan¬ 
ger;  and,  though  the  wind  was  sometimes  unsteady, 
we  did  not  altogether  lose  it  until  after  passing  the 
Pelew  Islands. 

“Thus  God  encouraged  me,  before  landing  on 
China’s  shores,  to  bring  every  variety  of  need  to  Him 
in  prayer,  and  to  expect  that  He  would  honour  the 
Name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  give  the  help  which 
each  emergency  required.” 

-The  following  incident  is  related  of  a  Chinese  con¬ 
vert,*  who  had  for  many  years  been  a  vegetarian,  to 
gain  merit  and  be  saved.  “  He  came  to  the  chapel,” 
says  the  writer,  “heard  and  believed  the  gospel, 
and  for  years  has  lived  a  consistent  Christian  life. 
Some  time  ago  the  people  collected  a  large  sum  of 
money  to  be  expended  in  idolatrous  work,  in  order 
that  their  houses  might  be  saved  from  fire,  and  asked 
this  man  to  contribute  to  that  fund.  He  declined, 
on  the  ground  that  he  trusted  in  the  living  God,  and 
that  the  idols  were  not  able  to  save  them  from  fire. 
No  sooner  was  the  idolatrous  ceremony  over  than 
an  extensive  fire  broke  out  in  the  very  street  in  which 
this  man’s  house  was  situated;  one  hundred  and 
twenty  houses  were  burnt  down,  and  when  the 
flames  were  coming  nearer  and  nearer  to  his  house, 
the  people  said,  6  Now  you  see  what  you  have  got.’ 
And  they  wanted  to  persuade  him  to  take  out  all  his 
furniture  into  the  street  that  he  might  save  some¬ 
thing.  He  knew  that  if  he  brought  the  things  out 
into  the  street,  even  though  they  would  be  safe  from 

*  “  China's  Millions,"  Sept.,  1882.  “  Progress  in  China,"  by  Rev.  A.  Foster, 

p.  52. 


PRO  VIDENTIAL  PRESER  VA  TIONS. 


315 


fire,  they  would  probably  be  stolen.  But  he  be¬ 
lieved  that  God  was  going  to  preserve  him  from 
suffering  loss,  and  he  told  the  people  so.  While 
they  were  hurrying  to  and  fro  in  all  their  excite¬ 
ment,  he,  in  the  presence  of  them  all,  prayed  God 
that  He  would  show  that  He  was  the  living  and  true 
God.  And  then  he  watched  the  fire  as  it  came 
nearer  and  nearer,  until  there  was  only  one  house 
standing  between  his  own  and  the  flames.  But  just 
then  there  was  a  sudden  change  in  the  wind:  God 
had  said,  ‘  Thus  far  shalt  thou  come  and  no  farther,’ 
and  his  house  was  saved.” 

David  Livingstone,  returning  from  Central  Africa, 
told  of  a  great  inland  sea — Lake  Nyassa.  The  Scot¬ 
tish  churches  and  the  Universities’  Mission  took 
possession  for  Christ — money  and  life  were  freely 
spent  to  evangelize  Nyassaland.  After  several 
years  the  envy  of  Portugal  is  aroused:  she  sends 
Major  Serpa  Pinto  to  seize  the  country,  and  Cardinal 
Lavigerie  is  ready  with  his  priests  to  station  them  in 
all  the  places  where  the  missionaries  have  laboured, 
where  the  graves  of  Englishmen  and  Englishwomen 
are  “  the  title  deeds  to  Nyassaland.”  Is  all  this  work 
for  Christ  to  be  overthrown?  A  spirit  of  prayer 
comes  upon  British  Christians,  and  the  Portuguese 
encroachments  are  defeated,  not  by  the  statesman¬ 
ship  of  Lord  Salisbury,  but  by  the  prayers  of  those 
who  sent  out  the  missionaries,  and  who,  day  by  day, 
cease  not  to  pray  on  their  behalf.  Truly,  “  It  is 
better  to  trust  in  the  Lord  than  to  put  confidence  in 
princes.”  * 

In  1574,  God,  at  the  siege  of  Leyden,  used  the 
forces  of  Nature  to  compel  the  retreat  of  the  Spanish 
armies.  The  Spaniards  had  derisively  shouted  to 
the  citizens,  “As  well  might  the  Prince  of  Orange 
pluck  the  stars  from  the  sky  as  bring  the  ocean  to  the 
walls  of  Leyden  for  your  relief;”  but,  on  the  night 
of  the  first  and  second  of  October,  a  violent  gale  from 

*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World.  Vol,  iv.  p.  26. 


316 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


the  northwest  and  southwest  piled  up  the  waters  of 
the  North  Sea  in  vast  masses  on  the  coast,  and  drove 
them  furiously  landward,  till  the  ocean  swept  with 
unrestrained  fury  across  the  ruined  dykes,  and  the 
relieving  fleet  sailed  up  almost  to  the  walls  of  the 
city!  No  wonder,  as  Motley  says,  that  the  enemies 
of  Holland  were  struck  with  terror  when  they  saw 
the  hand  of  God  send  the  ocean  and  tempest  to  the 
deliverance  of  the  besieged  city.  It  was  the  prayers 
of  saints  offered  up  in  those  times  of  great  peril  that 
preserved  Holland  from  Spanish  fury,  as  Britain  was 
preserved  from  the  Spanish  and  French  Armadas. 

The  missionary  life  of  that  “  veteran  of  Aniwa  ”  is 
one  almost  continuous  example  of  striking  answers 
to  believing  prayer.  When  the  armed  savages  ap¬ 
proached  Nowar’s  village  and  the  people  were  panic- 
stricken,  such  prayer  rose  to  Jehovah  as  can  be 
offered  only  by  those  who  stand  consciously  on  the 
brink  of  eternity.  The  savages  were  only  about 
three  hundred  yards  off  when  No  war  touched  Rev.  J.  G. 
Paton’s  knee,  saying,  “  Missy,  Jehovah  is  here.  See, 
they  all  stand  still !  ”  uWe  gazed  shore  wards,”  says 
Mr.  Paton,  “and  sure  enough  they  were  all  standing 
still.  They  actually  began  to  turn  and  enter  the 
remote  bush  at  the  end  of  the  harbour.”  Why  they 
turned  back  no  man  can  tell.  God  was  interfering  to 
save  imperilled  lives.  At  another  time  when  the  sav¬ 
ages  surrounded  the  mission-house,  and  set  fire  to  the 
church  and  the  fence  connecting  the  church  and  the 
dwelling,  Mr.  Paton  ran  out  and  tore  up  the  burning 
fence,  while  savages  raised  their  clubs  and  shouted, 
“  Kill  him!”  At  this  moment  occurred  an  incident 
which  his  readers  may  explain  as  they  like,  but  which 
he  traced  directly  to  the  interposition  of  my  God.  A 
rushing  and  roaring  sound  came  from  the  south,  like 
the  noise  of  a  mighty  engine  or  of  muttering  thunder. 
Every  head  was  instinctively  turned  in  that  direction, 
and  they  knew  from  previous  hard  experience  that 
it  was  one  of  their  awful  tornadoes.  Now  tnark,  the 


PROVIDENTIAL  PRESERVATIONS. 


317 


wind  bore  the  flames  away  from  the  house,  but  had 
it  come  in  the  opposite  direction  no  power  on  earth 
could  have  saved  them  all  from  being  consumed.  It 
made  the  work  of  destroying  the  church  only  that  of 
a  few  minutes;  but  it  brought  with  it  a  heavy  and 
murky  cloud  which  poured  out  a  perfect  torrent  of 
tropical  rain.  Now  mark  again:  the  flames  of  the 
burning  church  were  thereby  cut  off  from  extending 
to  and  seizing  upon  the  reeds  and  the  bush,  and, 
besides,  it  had  become  almost  impossible  now  to  set 
fire  to  the  house..  A  panic  seized  the  savages,  and 
throwing  down  their  torches  they  fled.  Returning 
to  the  house  Mr.  Paton  was  met  by  Mr.  Mathieson, 
who  exclaimed,  “If  ever,  in  time  of  need,  God  sent 
help  and  protection  to  his  servants,  in  answer  to 
prayer,  He  has  done  so  to-night.  Blessed  be  His 
holy  name !  ” 

The  reader  of  the  two  volumes  of  the  “Life  of 
John  G.  Paton,  Missionary  to  the  New  Hebrides,” 
will  not  need  to  be  told  that  the  whole  narrative 
evinces  the  interposition  of  God.  No  biography 
has  done  more  in  modern  days  to  revive  faith  in 
Providential  Preservations. 


IV. 


NEW  JUDGMENTS  OF  GOD. 

We  recognize  wonders  of  Providential  interposition 
in  the  defence  of  His  servants  and  the  defeat  and  de¬ 
struction  of  their  foes. 

From  the  times  that  the  stars  in  heaven  fought 
against  Sisera,  God  has  not  ceased  to  do  battle  for 
His  own  elect.  And  in  not  a  few  instances  His  “  lit¬ 
tle  flock,”  few  and  feeble  amid  their  foes,  like  lambs 
among  wolves,  have  had  only  to  stand  still  and  see 
His  salvation.  Sometimes  the  Angel  of  Death  has 
gone  forth  at  His  bidding  and  smitten  the  enemies  of 
His  people  with  a  destruction  as  sudden  as  that  which 
smote  Herod  in  the  midst  of  his  fawning  courtiers. 
Kings  have  conspired  to  cast  away  His  cords  from 
them,  and  rulers  have  counselled  together  to  break 
asunder  His  bands;  but  His  sceptre  has  dashed  them 
in  pieces  like  a  potter’s  vessel. 

In  Siam,  in  1851,  and  in  Turkey  twelve  years  be¬ 
fore,  at  the  very  crisis  of  missions,  when  absolute 
expulsion  of  all  Christ’s  witnesses  was  impending  and 
final  disaster  threatened  their  work,  sudden  death 
came  to  the  hostile  monarchs  who  had  flung  themselves 
upon  the  bosses  of  Jehovah’s  buckler.  These  two 
cases  may  stand  as  sufficient  to  represent  the  class  of 
interpositions  we  refer  to  now.  In  both  cases  the  re¬ 
spective  rulers  were  at  the  time  proposing  and  pre¬ 
paring  to  drive  out  all  Christian  missionaries  and 
bring  their  work  to  wreck  and  ruin.  In  both  cases, 
all  resistance  was  so  hopeless  that  prayer  to  God  was 
the  one  and  only  resort.  And,  in  both  cases,  the 
death  of  the  stubborn  and  malignant  monarch,  at  the 
exact  time  when  the  plan  was  ripe  for  accomplish¬ 
ment,  and  the  crisis  of  missions  had  fully  come,  was 

318 


NEW  JUDGMENTS  OF  GOD. 


319 


felt  even  by  the  foes  of  God  themselves  to  be  an 
interposition  of  God,  and  turned  the  scale. 

When  Sultan  Mahmud  thus  suddenly  died  in  Tur¬ 
key,  the  edict  of  expulsion  found  no  executive  to 
carry  it  into  operation.  On  the  other  hand,  Abdul 
Medjid  who  succeeded  him,  on  the  3d  of  November 
following,  in  presence  of  an  august  assemblage  of 
the  nobles  of  the  empire,  not  only  the  Mussulmans, 
but  the  deputies  of  the  Greeks,  Armenians  and 
Jews,  together  with  foreign  ambassadors,  ordered 
his  Grand  Vizier  to  read  the  Hatti  Sherif  of  Gul 
Hane ,  or  first  formal  Bill  of  Rights,  the  Magna 
Charta  of  Turkey,  and  himself  led  the  way  in  taking 
the  oath  of  fidelity  to  this  new  Charter  of  Liberty, 
which  prepared  the  way  for  the  famous  Hatti 
Humayonn  in  1856!  Thus,  for  more  than  fifty  years 
missions  have  been  acquiring  more  and  more  influ¬ 
ence  within  the  dominions  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey. 

As  to  that  other  Land  of  the  White  Elephant,  the 
turn  of  tide  is  one  of  the  most  striking  in  all  history. 
Maha-Mong-Kut,  who  then  came  to  the  throne,  was 
the  one  man  in  the  empire  who  had  been  prepared 
by  God  to  be  the  friend  and  patron  of  Christian  mis¬ 
sions.  He  had  been  taught  in  science  and  language 
by  a  missionary,  and  in  this  frequent  and  familiar 
contact  had  become  his  friend  and  the  friend  of  his 
fellow  missionaries.  He  had  imbibed  from  such  in¬ 
tercourse  a  liberality  of  mind,  a  catholicity  of  senti¬ 
ment,  which  both  fitted  and  disposed  him  to  favour 
and  further  the  work  of  the  missionary.  He  was  not, 
however,  a  Christian  disciple,  and  had  retired  to  the 
cell  of  the  Buddhist  monastery.  But,  on  the  sudden 
demise  of  the  reigning  and  reckless  sovereign,  Maha- 
Mong-Kut  was  called  from  his  seclusion  to  mount 
the  throne  of  the  “  Sacred  Prabahts,”  and,  for  seven¬ 
teen  years,  wielded  a  sceptre  so  benignant  that  he  has 
been  known  as  the  most  enlightened  and  catholic  ruler 
of  all  Asia.  Before  he  died  he  had  decreed  liberty  of 
conscience  throughout  all  the  land,  and  his  son  and 


320 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


successor,  Chulalangkorn,  has  followed  in  his  steps. 
More  than  forty  years  not  only  of  toleration,  but  of 
co-operation  toward  missions,  have  been  the  fruit  of 
one  unmistakable  act  of  divine  interposition  in  1851. 
Could  unwritten  history  find  a  record,  there  are  many 
such  interpositions  both  in  behalf  of  individuals,  and 
of  the  work  of  missions  as  such,  which  equally  re¬ 
veal  the  presence  and  power  of  Him  whose  last 
promise  was,  “  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway.” 

There  is  something  awful  in  the  majesty  of  divine 
judgments.  God’s  4  6  great  army”  has  not  been  dis¬ 
banded,  though  the  prophet’s  pen  no  longer  outlines 
their  march  and  describes  their  regiments.  Cater¬ 
pillar  and  cankerworm,  locust  and  palmerworm  still 
obey  His  behests. 

What  a  desert  of  devastation,  for  instance,  the 
locust  leaves  in  his  track!  Think  of  an  army  of 
these  invaders,  reaching  fifty  miles  in  every  direc¬ 
tion,  and  half  a  mile  thick,  with  one  hundred  and 
fifty  locusts  to  the  cubic  foot,  and  moving  from 
twelve  to  twenty  miles  an  hour !  It  would  require 
seven  million  vessels,  each  of  six  thousand  tons 
burden,  to  transport  such  a 'host;  and  yet  this  is 
but  one  small  detachment  of  God’s  4  ‘  great  army!  ” 

God  calls  for  the  famine  and  it  does  His  bidding, 
and  often  strangely  prepares  His  way.  In  India  it 
introduced,  in  1877,  the  greatest  ingathering  of  con¬ 
verts  ever  known.  In  China,  in  the  days  of  Morri¬ 
son,  eight  times  it  did  the  work  of  an  evangelist 
and  made  full  proof  of  its  ministry  by  giving  God’s 
servants  the  opportunity  to  show  the  unselfishness  of 
the  Christian  spirit.  A  heathen  people,  dying  of 
drought  or  flood,  pestilence  or  starvation,  see  their 
fellows  of  the  same  nation  and  religion,  stand  aloof 
in  utter  indifference,  while  “foreign  devils,” 
inspired  by  a  hated  faith,  labour  night  and  day, 
daring  all  privations  and  exposures  to  feed  the 
starving,  heal  the  sick,  and  comfort  the  dying;  and 
this  goes  further  to  correct  false  prejudices  and  win 


NEW  JUDGMENTS  OF  GOD. 


321 


men  to  Christ  than  any  argument  or  word  of  wit¬ 
ness.  Famine  has  been  so  often  the  precursor  of 
“revivals”  that  missionaries  have  learned  to  think 
of  it  as  an  angel  in  dark  disguise. 

In  connection  with  that  Pentecost  at  Hilo  and 
Puna,  there  was  a  miracle  of  judgment  that  will 
never  be  forgotten.  In  a  secluded  valley  of  Puna 
was  one  small  village  which  was  a  moral  cesspool. 
Awful  as  was  the  heathenism  about  it,  here  it  was 
worse,  and  the  labours  of  Mr.  Coan,  so  rapidly  fruit¬ 
ful  elsewhere,  here,  for  years  were  vain  and  even 
worse  than  vain,  for  the  people  hardened  themselves 
against  God,  and  even  sought  to  starve  out  his 
messengers.  At  one  time  Mr.  Coan,  with  a  little 
band  of  native  Kanakas,  went  there  to  hold  a  meet¬ 
ing,  and  were  refused  even  a  half-potato;  and  at 
night  lay  down  unable  to  sleep  for  hunger.  While 
the  villagers  thought  them  asleep,  they  were  seen 
eating  the  food  which  they  had  denied  that  they 
were  able  to  supply  for  the  Lord’s  servants.  In  the 
morning,  the  missionary  left  them,  literally  shaking 
off  the  dust  of  his  feet  for  a  testimony  against  them, 
saying,  “Never  again  will  I  come  to  you  until  you 
call  for  me.”  Not  long  after,  this  village,  though 
forty  miles  from  port  where  the  infection  was  usually 
caught,  was  so  visited  by  a  scourge  of  small-pox,  that, 
save  three  or  four  survivors,  every  inhabitant  died; 
and  in  1840,  a  lava  flood  swept  over  the  site  of  the 
previous  visitation  of  God,  and  left  only  a  black  field 
of  death  and  desolation  behind  it.  It  is  to  this  day 
a  reminder  of  the  destruction  that  overtook  Sodom  ! 
The  people  saw  in  it  God’s  strange  work  of  judg¬ 
ment  and  retribution. 


V. 


GENERAL  ADMINISTRATION. 

Japan  is  looked  upon  by  the  world  as  one  of  its 
modern  wonders.  The  revolution,  there  wrought  with¬ 
in  a  decade  of  years,  has  perhaps  no  historic  parallel. 
The  steps  were  giant  strides:  the  fall  of  the  dual 
dynasty,  the  change  of  capitals,  the  death-blow  of 
feudalism,  the  adoption  of  a  new  calendar,  and  of 
the  weekly  Rest-day;  the  establishment  of  postal 
union  and  savings  banks;  national  mint,  lighthouses 
and  coast  survey;  of  railways  and  telegraphs;  the 
reconstruction  of  army  and  navy  and  educational 
systems — these  were  a  few  of  the  prominent  features 
of  the  New  Japan,  now  also  crowned  with  constitu¬ 
tional  liberty. 

To  some,  there  is  in  this  no  hand  of  God,  but  only 
a  nation  waking  from  long  sleep,  shaking  his  locks, 
quaffing  the  new  wine  of  Western  enterprise;  and, 
conscious  of  gianthood,  bursting  old  bonds  and  tak¬ 
ing  huge  strides  forward.  But  there  are  circum¬ 
stances  too  remarkable  to  allow  any  explanation 
short  of  divine  interposition ;  some  coincidences 
which  are  both  marks  and  fruits  of  a  higher  plan,  in 
which,  as  cog  fits  cog  in  the  wheel  of  a  vast  machine, 
event  meets  event  in  a  pre-arranged  harmony.  As  in 
Ezekiel’s  vision,  even  events  which  face  different 
ways  move  together  in  one  direction. 

Commodore  Perry’s  initial  act — when  he  laid  an 
open  Bible  over  the  American  flag  upon  the  capstan 
of  his  flagship,  and  sent  the  words  of  the  Hundredth 
Psalm  echoing  over  Yeddo’s  Bay — that  initial  act 
was  a  parable  in  action.  The  mute  guns  of  his  war¬ 
ship  spoke  of  a  peaceful  commerce  displacing  war¬ 
like  invasion.  The  stars  and  stripes  were  the  sym¬ 
bol  of  Western  civilization  with  its  liberty,  civil  and 

322 


GENERAL  ADMINISTRA  TION 


323 


religious;  and  the  open  Bible  and  the  sacred  psalm 
forecast  gospel  triumph.  God  himself  planned  all 
the  details  of  that  opening  scene,  and  according  to 
that  pattern  the  work  has  been  built  on  those  shores. 

All  along  the  subsequent  development  of  these 
forty  years,  we  see  the  play  of  this  divine  mechanism 
— the  wheel  in  the  middle  of  the  wheel.  We  shall 
need  only  to  recur  to  the  story  of  Neesima,  as  already 
given  in  previous  pages.  Apparently  accidental, 
really  providential  —  his  disgust  with  idols,  his 
glimpse  of  the  Bible,  his  taste  of  a  new  faith,  his 
escape  to  America,  his  contact  with  Alpheus  Hardy, 
his  Christian  training,  his  service  to  the  embassy,  his 
return  to  his  own  land,  the  vindication  of  his  right 
to  teach,  the  establishment  of  the  Doshisha — are  not 
these  the  play  of  divine  coincidents  and  coincidences 
in  an  articulated  plan? 

After  Neesima  found  Christ,  and,  while  asking  how 
he  could  get  back  to  his  country  without  incurring 
death  for  having  gone  away  without  leave — the  Jap¬ 
anese  embassy  seek  his  aid  as  interpreter.  Through 
them  he  not  only  gets  safe  conduct,  but  open  door  to 
his  new  mission  among  his  countrymen;  for,  when 
he  lands  in  Japan,  his  former  patrons  of  the  embassy 
are  holding  the  reins  of  empire,  and  the  decree  goes 
forth  to  his  opponents:  “  Let  Neesima  alone!  ” 

Watch  the  play  of  these  wheels  still  further. 
Was  it  a  mere  chance  that  opened  Kyoto  for  the 
Hundred  Days’  Exhibition,  when  Rev.  O.  H.  Gulick 
made  the  acquaintance  of  that  friend  whose  power¬ 
ful  mediation  not  only  furthered  Neesima’s  plans  for 
Christian  education,  but  furnished  the  site  for  the 
Doshisha?  And  when  the  “  sacred  city  ”  would  have 
denied  even  Neesima  the  right  to  teach  the  Christian 
faith,  it  was  Tanaka  himself,  who  owed  to  Neesima 
his  successful  study  of  the  common  schools  of 
America, — who  was  head  of  the  department  of  edu¬ 
cation  and  turned  the  scale  in  Neesima’s  favour;  so 
that  he  himself  could  only  attribute  his  deliverance 


324 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


from  the  “  deep  muds  of  the  past  ”  to  the  “unseen 
hand  of  God.” 

Close  search  reveals  in  this  curious  fabric  of  Jap¬ 
anese  history  one  delicate  thread  of  divine  purpose, 
wrought  of  countless  fibres.  Many  of  these  provi¬ 
dential  events  belong  to  yet  unwritten  records;  but 
a  further  example  may  serve  to  confirm  our  faith  in 
this  remarkable  guidance  of  God. 

Just  when  this  great  work  of  Christian  education 
at  Kyoto  hung  in  the  balance  and  final  failure  seemed 
to  threaten,  there  came  a  strange  accession  of  some 
thirty  native  Christian  students  as  reinforcements 
from  a  most  unexpected  quarter.  In  the  old  prov¬ 
ince  of  Higo,  in  Kuishu,  some  “  Jo-i  ”  men,  or 
“  foreign-expellers  ” — had  banded  together  to  form 
a  school  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  out  Western 
ideas,  and  especially  the  hated  Western  religion.  A 
certain  Captain  Janes,  who  had  come  out  to  teach 
military  tactics,  but  was  without  employment,  by 
another  most  singular  chain  of  events  became  the 
teacher.  That  man,  says  Dr.  Davis,  Neesima’s  biog¬ 
rapher,  was  himself  a  Christian.  Yet  so  deadly  was 
the  hatred  of  the  new  faith  that  for  six  months  he 
had  to  keep  his  Christianity  out  of  sight ;  but  mean¬ 
while  he  could  not  keep  its  influence  from  pervading 
the  school — a  flower  cannot  suppress  its  fragrance 
even  in  the  darkness.  At  last  he  ventured  to  present 
the  scientific  argument  for  the  existence  of  a  God, 
and  was  met  by  a  bold  challenge  from  his  pupils, 
“  You  lie ,  sir!  ”  Two  years  went  by  before  he  dared 
to  ask  some  more  advanced  students  to  study  the 
New  Testament  with  him.  The  patrons  of  the  school 
consented  because  students  must  understand  Chris¬ 
tianity  in  order  to  oppose  it . 

Behold  God’s  hand  placing  in  the  very  hotbed  of 
infidel  culture,  a  plant  of  godliness !  and  making  the 
foes  of  the  faith  to  give  it  room  to  take  root,  in  order 
that  they  might  learn  how  to  recognize  it  and  destroy 
it  wherever  found!  God’s  armour-bearer  is  training 


GENERAL  ADMINISTRA  TION. 


325 


the  opposers  of  Christ  in  the  knowledge  of  His  own 
weapons;  and,  meanwhile,  they  are  compelled  to  see 
that  no  weapon  formed  against  Him  can  prosper! 

Two  years  more  go  by.  To  study  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  is  to  look  upon  the  cross  with  its  Crucified  One, 
and  before  the  infinite  pathos  of  that  cross,  the  win¬ 
ter  in  their  hearts  shows  signs  of  melting  under 
the  beams  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness !  And  less 
than  five  years  after  Bible  study  began  its  work, 
forty  of  those  young  men  who  had  banded  to  fight 
the  new  faith,  went  up  the  Hanaoka  mountain  to  set 
their  seal  to  a  new  covenant  with  Christ  and  each 
other,  to  give  their  lives  to  Christ  for  Japan!  And 
these  were  the  men  that  in  the  crisis  reinforced  the 
imperilled  enterprise  at  Kyoto,  and  in  1879  were 
graduated  from  the  Doshisha  to  become  the  best 
native  teachers  and  preachers  to  mould  the  New 
Japan! 

There  are  many  other  plain  signs  of  the  divine 
working  in  this  well-jointed  mechanism.  Neesima 
was  a  conspicuous  man  from  his  connection  with  the 
embassy  and  the  Doshisha,  and  even  the  opposition 
to  his  work  only  gave  his  name  and  fame  a  trumpet 
voice.  The  graduates  from  his  school  were  found  to 
be  commanding  the  best  posts  in  the  empire  and  con¬ 
trolling  affairs  by  sheer  force  of  character,  so  that,  at 
the  tenth  anniversary  of  the  Doshisha,  it  had  proven 
its  mission  to  be  so  useful  that  it  had  vindicated  its 
right  to  be.  Count  Inouye  himself  gave  the  address, 
and  so  the  government  recognized  a  Christian  school 
as  a  national  blessing !  Before  Neesima  died  he  had, 
in  a  large  Buddhist  temple  at  Kyoto,  pleaded  for  the 
new  university,  and  over  60,000  yen  had  been  sub¬ 
scribed.  And  five  years  ago  the  work  of  the  Dosh¬ 
isha  had  already  given  to  Japan  nearly  one  thousand 
young  workers  for  God. 

This  story  we  have  considered  worthy  of  a  large 
place  as  an  example  of  the  wonder-working  of  God 
in  modern  missions.  Prominent  as  is  the  individual 


326 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


factor,  its  importance  is  found  only  in  its  connection 
with  Him  who  alone  controls  history.  This  man  was 
the  rod  of  God  with  which  He  wrought  signs. 

Neesima’s  biographer,  already  referred  to,  ex¬ 
presses  the  sum  of  all  this  forty  years*  wonder¬ 
working  : 

“  Let  us  realize- that  God  still  moves  in  a  mysteri¬ 
ous  way  His  wonders  to  perform  in  the  world.  The 
age  of  miracles  of  physical  healing  may  be  past,  but 
we  have  before  us  the  fulfilment  at  the  present  day 
of  the  Saviour’s  promise :  ‘  Greater  works  than  these 
shall  ye  do,  because  I  go  unto  my  Father!  ’  ”  Then 
referring  to  the  wonderful  chain  of  events  already 
traced,  he  adds:  “  This  is  as  great  a  ‘  miracle  ’  as  is 
recorded  in  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New,  if  we 
except  our  Saviour’s  incarnation  and  atoning  work. 
It  is  inconceivable  that  all  these  .improbable  things 
should  happen  and  come  together  at  just  the  right 
time,  simply  by  chance  !  ” 

The  location  and  succession  of  labourers  is  another 
proof  of  providential  administration.  Who  but  God 
knows  what  sort  of  men  and  women  will  be  needed 
at  any  critical  and  pivotal  point  of  time  and  place. 
Yet  with  what  divine  prescience  the  story  of  mis¬ 
sions  abounds!  God  has  at  the  precise  exigency 
raised  up  and  placed  at  the  great  centres  of  influence 
the  exact  workmen  needed.  And  they  could  have  had 
no  conscious  part  in  this  adaptation,  for  they  did  not 
know  the  field  to  which  they  were  going,  and  still 
less  did  they  know  its  peculiar  wants.  There  were 
obvious  pre-adaptations  which  far  transcend  all  mere 
human  forethought.  How  little  Livingstone  knew 
how  his  preparations  for  China  were  pre-eminently 
fitting  him  for  Africa  and  his  exact  work  in  the  Dark 
Continent !  When  McAll  was  amusing  himself  with 
architectural  drawing,  how  little  did  he  dream  that 
his  pencil  was  to  be  brought  into  such  requisition  in 
planning salles  in  Paris!  When  John  E.  Clough  was 
training  as  a  civil  engineer,  and  persisted  in  going 


GENERAL  ADMlNlSTRA  T/ON. 


327 


to  India,  who  but  God  foresaw  that,  in  1877,  a  civil 
engineer  would  be  specially  needed  to  complete  that 
Buckingham  canal,  and  give  perishing  Telugus  work 
and  wages?  Who  gave  Carey  such  native  love  for  lin¬ 
guistic  study  and  such  passion  for  Cook’s  “  Voyages,” 
but  He  who  meant  him  for  England’s  first  missionary 
to  India,  and  the  great  translator  of  His  Word  into 
the  many  dialects  of  that  vast  empire?  Dr.  George 
E.  Post  little  thought,  when  perfecting  himself  in 
medicine  and  surgery,  that  he  was  to  wield  a  world¬ 
wide  influence  from  Beirut,  and  make  St.  John’s 
Hospital  a  vestibule  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Was  it  no  providence  of  God  that  at  critical  periods 
of  missions  raised  up  and  placed  at  the  great  centres 
of  influence  the  exact  men  and  women  needed?  What 
a  man  was  Lord  William  Bentinck,  to  take  the  gov¬ 
ernor-generalship  in  India  during  that  memorable 
seven  years,  from  1828-1835.  It  forms  an  epoch  in 
administrative  reform,  and  in  the  slow  process 
whereby  the  population  of  a  province  become  recon¬ 
ciled  to  foreign  rule,  and  even  attached  to  alien  rulers. 
With  Lord  Bentinck  begins  that  modern  history  of 
British  rule  in  India  which  introduced  a  benevolent 
and  fraternal  administration,  wherein  the  good  of  the 
native  population  was  the  supreme  end  kept  in  view. 
Two  memorable  acts  forever  adorn  his  rule:  the 
abolition  of  suttee  and  the  suppression  of  the  Thugs. 
So  prevalent  was  the  immolation  of  widows  under 
religious  sanction,  that,  in  the  year  1817,  seven  hun¬ 
dred  mounted  the  pyre  in  Bengal  presidency  alone ; 
and  to-day,  each  of  the  little  white  pillars,  so  thickly 
dotting  the  most  holy  pilgrim  paths  of  the  Hindus, 
commemorates  a  suttee.  In  the  face  of  determined 
opposition,  both  from  natives  and  Europeans,  this 
noble  magistrate  decreed  Dec.  4,  1829,  that  all  who 
abetted  the  suttee  were  to  be  held  guilty  of  “  culpa¬ 
ble  homicide.”  And  when  the  Brahmans  claimed 
the  right  to  follow  their  own  conscience,  which,  as 
they  declared,  demanded  that  widows  should  be 


328 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


burned  alive,  he  calmly  answered:  “Obey  your  con¬ 
science,  then;  but  I  forewarn  you  that  an  English¬ 
man’s  conscience  compels  him  to  hang  every  one  of 
you  who  becomes  responsible  for  such  murder !” 

And  then,  as  to  the  Thugs  or  Thagi — those  bands 
of  secret  assassins  bound  by  oath  to  commit  outrages, 
and  basing  their  vows  on  the  rites  of  the  bloody 
Kali — between  1826  and  1835,  over  fifteen  hundred 
of  these  Thugs  were  apprehended  in  different  parts 
of  India.  And  thus  gradually  the  plagues  of  India 
abated. 

Macaulay’s  graceful  pen  furnished  that  noble 
tribute  engraved  on  the  statue  at  Calcutta: 

“  He  abolished  cruel  rites;  he  effaced  humiliating 
distinctions;  he  gave  liberty  to  the  expression  of 
public  opinion ;  his  constant  study  it  was  to  elevate 
the  intellectual  and  moral  character  of  the  nations 
committed  to  his  charge.” 

And  so  suttee  and  Thug  outrages  ceased;  and  then 
infanticide — till,  in  1863,  the  last  link  between  idol- 
fanes  and  State  patronage  was  broken. 


MIRACLES  OF  GRACE. 


The  remark  of  Prof.  Theodore  Christlieb  is  often 
repeated,  that  “in  the  history  of  modern  missions 
we  find  many  wonderful  occurrences  which  unmis¬ 
takably  remind  us  of  the  Apostolic  age.”  And  in 
view  of  the  fact  that,  now  as  then,  such  hindrances 
to  the  gospel  exist  in  the  heathen  world  that  the 
sense  of  divine  things  is  dulled  and  blunted,  he 
thought  that  supernatural  exhibitions  of  power  are 
needed  to  confirm  the  message  and  compel  attention. 
With  such  a  basis  of  conviction  that  God’s  interven¬ 
tion  is  to  be  expected,  the  wonders  recorded  in  the 
experience  of  Hans  Egede,  Spangenberg  and  Zeis- 
berger,  Kleinschmidt,  and  the  little  flock  in  the 
Vaudois  valleys,  will  not  appear  incredible.  And, 
inasmuch  as  there  is  no  hint  in  the  New  Testament 
that  the  signs  promised  as  proofs  of  Christ’s  pres¬ 
ence  and  confirmations  of  faith  were  ever  to  cease, 
why  are  we  incredulous  as  to  the  reality  of  the  won¬ 
ders  recorded? 

The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles  have  recorded  sim¬ 
ilar  triumphs  of  grace.  In  countless  cases  the  moral 
miracle  wrought  at  Ephesus  has  been  repeated. 
Leaders  of  the  people,  who  have  made  merchandise 
of  superstition  and  imposture,  have  sacrificed  both 
their  profits  and  their  prominence,  their  means  of 
livelihood  and  sometimes  life  itself,  rather  than 
longer  sin  against  God,  or  betray  even  by  silence 
their  former  victims  of  ignorance  and  delusion. 
Who  can  count  the  cost  to  a  Brahman  like  Sheshadri 
in  India,  or  a  Maronite  priest  like  Asaad  Shidiak 
in  Syria,  of  renouncing  a  false  faith  and  a  lying  life, 
henceforth  to  teach  the  hated  gospel  and  bear  the 
shameful  cross!  Hudson  Taylor  tells  of  one  such 


330 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

conversion  in  inland  China,  where  a  former  leader  in 
atrocious  crimes  turned  the  haunts  of  unbridled  lust 
into  the  place  of  prayer,  and  himself  became  the 
witness  to  those  whom  he  had  led  astray. 

In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  they  are  the  wonders  of 
grace  that  overawe  us,  and  not  those  of  simple 
power.  When  the  magians,  already  referred  to,  that 
clustered  about  Diana’s  great  temple,  were  so 
wrought  upon  by  the  Spirit  of  God  that  their  pride 
and  greed,  their  lust  of  power  and  their  lust  of  gain, 
were  at  once  renounced,  and  the  flames  devoured  the 
costly  text-books  of  their  occult  arts,  there  is  some¬ 
thing  in  such  sacrifices  that  is  sublimer  than  any 
mere  display  of  force,  though  it  were  sufficient  to 
shake  the  earth  itself.  We  all  know  that  selfish 
greed  and  social  rank  grapple  men  as  with  hooks  of 
steel ;  and  we  stand  in  awe  of  such  proofs  of  divine 
working  as  were  seen  when  all  sources  of  pecuniary 
gain  and  superstitious  prestige  were  thus  voluntarily 
abandoned. 

Is  it  no  sign  of  God’s  power  when  moral  and  social 
changes  which  the  wisest  men  reckon  among  impos¬ 
sibilities  are*  not  only  actually  wrought  but  with  a 
rapidity  that  seems  fabulous  ? 

For  example,  when  Dr.  Duff  began  work  in  Cal¬ 
cutta,  he  found  that  a  cow  had  more  rights  ’and 
higher  rank  than  a  woman,  and  he  said  that  to  try  to 
educate  women  in  India  was  as  vain  as  to  attempt  to 
“  scale  a  wall  five  hundred  yards  high.”  To-day  in 
the  province  of  Bengal  alone  a  hundred  thousand 
women  and  girls  are  under  instruction,  and  India’s 
most  gifted  daughters  are  laying  hold  of  the  treas¬ 
ures  of  the  higher  education.  Zenana  doors  have 
been  unlocked  by  the  gentle  hand  of  Christian 
womanhood,  and  a  transformation  is  already  accom¬ 
plished  which  centuries  of  merely  human  wisdom 
and  power  could  not  even  have  begun. 

Those  sagacious  men  who  are  God’s  seers  look  on 
this  great  change  as  the  hope  of  this  Oriental  Em- 


MIRACLES  OF  GRACE. 


331 


pire.  Woman  was  taken  out  of  man,  yet  even  in  India 
as  in  Eden,  woman  leads  man,  and  through  her  heart 
lies  the  road  to  his  head.  Whatever  system  of  truth 
or  faith  captivates  woman,  in  the  end  captures  man. 
Even  those  who  see,  can  scarce  believe  what  they 
see — a  moral  movement  to-day  in  progress,  by 
which  the  conditions  of  a  half  century  ago  are  being 
reversed.  What  then  was  a  wall  of  hopeless  exclu¬ 
sion,  the  despair  of  the  missionary,  is  now  become  a 
highway  of  access  and  the  hope  of  final  conquest,  as 
before  the  victorious  Macedonian  the  walls  of  Tyre 
were  turned  into  the  mole  that  joined  the  island  to 
the  mainland. 

Henry  Martyn  calmly  said  that  the  conversion  of 
Krishna  Chundra  Pal,  India’s  first  Protestant  con¬ 
vert,  was  as  stupendous  a  miracle  as  raising  the 
dead.  What  would  he  say  if  he  saw  the  native 
Christians  in  that  empire  of  Brahma,  increasing 
eighty  per  cent,  in  one  decade  of  years? 

When  that  first  convert  was  baptized,  in  1800,  the 
islands  of  the  South  Seas  thronged  with  hordes  of 
heartlessly  cruel  savages.  Cannibalism,  their  shame, 
was  yet  their  glory;  human  skins  furnished  them  with 
water-bags  and  human  skulls  with  drinking-cups; 
men’s  bones  were  their  ornaments,  and  men’s  blood 
moistened  their  war-paint.  How  has  it  come  to  pass 
that  to-day  scarce  a  trace  of  these  brutal  barbarities 
exists  through  the  vast  Pacific  Archipelago? 

From  the  commencement  of  the  Bechuana  mission 
by  Hamilton  Read,  in  1816,  for  over  ten  years  no 
ray  of  light  shot  athwart  the  gloom.  The  Batlaping 
had  open  ears  only  to  what  promised  temporal  gains, 
and  were  deaf  to  all  spiritual  invitation  or  warning. 
When  the  sorely-tried  faith  of  the  missionaries  almost 
gave  way,  there  was  a  holy  woman  in  the  mission 
who  never  faltered  in  her  faith.  She  believed  in  the 
promise  of  an  unchanging  God,  and  she  said:  “We 
may  not  live  to  see  it,  but,  as  surely  as  to-morrow’s 
sun  will  rise,  the  awakening  will  come.”  When  her 


332 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


friends  at  home  would  have  counselled  her  to  give 
up  her  forlorn  hope  and  go  to  a  promising  field,  and 
when  Mrs.  Greaves,  of  Sheffield,  wrote,  asking  what 
could  be  sent  her  that  would  be  of  use — the  sublime 
answer  of  Mary  Moffat  was:  “Send  us  a  communion 
service;  it  will  be  wanted.” 

At  that  time  there  was  not  the  first  glimmer  of 
day — it  was  the  forecast  of  faith;  and  it  took  many 
months  for  the  letter  to  find  its  way  to  England  and 
for  the  request  to  find  fulfilment.  And,  meanwhile, 
the  darkness  seemed  to  deepen,  and  doubts  grew 
graver  as  to  the  expediency  of  carrying  on  the 
Bechuana  mission ;  but  her  faith  knew  no  change : 
it  had  its  grip  on  the  promises.  In  1827,  the  gray 
light  of  dawn  faintly  appeared,  and  by  1829,  a  mar¬ 
vellous  quickening  began  even  among  these  stolidly 
indifferent  natives,  and  without  any  human  or  visible 
cause.  There  was  “a  wave  of  tumultuous  and 
simultaneous  enthusiasm,”  which  could  not  be  due  to 
the  “sober-minded  and  hard-headed  Scotchmen,” 
who  have  a  wholesome  dread  of  sensationalism  and 
emotionalism.  But  in  a  few  months  the  whole 
aspect  of  matters  was  changed.  The  meeting-house 
thronged  in  advance  of  the  hour  of  service — songs 
and  prayers  instead  of  pagan  chants  and  dances — all 
at  once  eternal  realities  had  come  to  the  front  and 
compelled  attention.  The  dirt  and  filth  and  nudity 
of  the  natives  were  exchanged  for  cleanly  habits  and 
decent  attire,  and  such  a  spirit  of  inquiry  was 
aroused  that  the  little  Kuruman  meeting-house  re¬ 
sounded  with  sobs  and  cries  that  made  it  hard  to  go 
on  with  the  usual  forms  of  worship.  And  the  first 
time  the  table  of  the  Lord  was  spread  in  the  Bech¬ 
uana  mission,  the  same  number  sat  down  as  at  the 
original  celebration  in  Jerusalem!  and  the  very  day 
previous  to  that  appointed  for  this  ordinance,  there 
arrived  a  box,  long  on  the  way,  which  being  opened 
was  found  to  hold  the  communion  vessels  Mary 
Moffat  had  asked  for  nearly  three  years  before — 


MIRACLES  OF  GRACE. 


333 


prophesying*  “we  shall  want  them  —  send  them 
on!” 

William  Duncan  took  seven  years — 1856-1863 — to 
establish  his  model  state  among  the  wild  Red  men 
of  North  America.  When  he  first  went  among  them 
he  found  nine  hostile  tribes  gathered  together,  and 
when  after  six  months  he  undertook  to  preach  his 
first  sermon,  he  dared  not  bring  them  into  one  assem¬ 
bly,  but  delivered  it  nine  times  the  same  day  to  as 
many  different  groups;  and  when  Lord  Dufferin, 
Governor-General  of  Canada,  went  to  see  Duncan’s 
Metlakahtla,  he  could  find  no  terms  in  the  various 
languages  of  which  he  was  master,  fitly  to  describe 
what  he  saw,  but  could  only  exclaim,  44  What  won¬ 
ders  hath  God  wrought !  ” 

William  Duncan  went  to  Fort  Simpson  in  1856, 
where  he  found  some  twenty  houses  of  fur-traders, 
and  nearly  three  hundred  in  a  long  straight  line  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  where  wild  Indians  lived. 

Not  long  after  his  arrival  he  found  a  crowd  of 
these  savages  on  the  beach  actually  tearing  in  pieces, 
and  then  eating,  a  human  body.  With  the  aid  of  an 
Indian,  named  Clah,  who  could  speak  English,  he 
undertook  to  learn  the  languages  of  these  wild  men, 
and  get  acquainted  with  their  habits.  He  found  two 
distinct  parties — 44  man-eaters,”  and  44  dog-eaters” — 
but  more  numerous  tribal  divisions.  He  began  to# 
visit  them  at  their  houses,  and  after  working  over 
eight  months,  wrote  out  that  first  plain  sermon  which 
nine  times  he  read  to  audiences  that  numbered  from 
fifty  to  two  hundred.  He  opened  his  first  school  in 
the  house  of  a  chief,  Legiac.  At  first  he  had  such 
conflicts  with  their  unholy  rites  and  pagan  supersti¬ 
tions,  that  even  his  life  was  in  danger;  but  he 
persevered,  teaching  and  preaching  and  visiting 
the  sick,  and  the  influence  of  the  gospel  became 
apparent.  Feathers  and  paint  gave  place  to  decent 
attire.  Even  the  chiefs  were  found  at  school ; 
church-goers  were  numbered  by  hundreds.  And  in 


334 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


1 863,  he  withdrew  with  fifty  Indians  to  a  retired  bay 
twenty  miles  off,  that  he  might  build  there  a  model 
state,  free  from  the  drunkenness  and  other  vices  that 
were  constantly  undoing  his  work  at  Fort  Simpson. 
Six  weeks  later,  he  was  joined  by  three  hundred 
more  who  entered  into  the  covenant  to  abandon 
pagan  practices  and  vicious  habits.  And  so  the 
foundations  of  Metlakahtla  were  laid.  A  Christian 
village  grew  with  surprising  rapidity.  It  was  laid 
out  with  regularity,  but  its  outward  order  was  but  a 
faint  reflection  of  its  moral  order. 

Chief  Legiac  was  transformed  from  a  fierce  and 
revengeful  savage  to  a  quiet  carpenter,  and  became 
Mr.  Duncan's  chief  helper.  The  Tsimean  Indians 
developed  not  only  into  industrious  tradesmen,  but 
into  artistic  carvers  in  wood,  stone  and  ivory,  and 
jewellers.  The  natives  bought  their  own  vessel  and 
set  on  foot  their  own  commerce.  Whiskey  and  im¬ 
morality  were  excluded,  and  Metlakahtla  became  a 
proverb  for  all  the  most  beneficent  fruits  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  and  put  to  shame  the  oldest  and  best  gov¬ 
erned  communities  of  Christian  lands,  by  its  beautful 
example  of  the  Power  of  the  Gospel. 

Individual  conversions  weigh  heavily  in  the  scale 
when  we  are  seeking  proofs  that  God  is  supernatu- 
rally  working ;  but  when  to  these  is  added  the  weight 
of  testimony  found  in  these  changes  that  affect  the 
whole  domestic  and  social  life,  what  doubt  remains? 
We  must  take  the  whole  range  of  human  experience, 
of  the  sins  and  sorrows,  curses  and  crimes  of  society, 
when  we  estimate  either  human  degradation  or  ele¬ 
vation.  Gesta  Diaboli  must  be  known  if  Gesta 
Christi  are  understood. 

What  lever  is  that  which  after  thousands  of  years 
of  worse  than  slavery  is  now  lifting  womanhood  to  a 
lofty  level?  In  Asia  woman  has  long  found  no  wel¬ 
come  at  birth,  no  instruction  in  girlhood,  no  love  in 
wifehood,  no  care  in  motherhood,  no  protection  in 
old  age,  no  regret  in  death.  In  Africa,  sold  for  so 


MIRA  CLES  OF  GRA  CE. 


335 


many  head  of  cattle,  she  has  often  been  more  brutally 
treated;  and  in  Persia,  loaded  like  a  donkey,  she 
could  not  easily  be  distinguished  from  a  beast  of  bur¬ 
den.  Tabooed  by  caste,  denied  either  freedom  or 
society,  counted  as  soulless,  and  both  incapable  of 
culture  and  unworthy  of  respect,  she  has  been  shut 
up  in  a  domestic  prison,  and  treated  as  a  slave  for 
service  and  a  victim  for  vice. 

Where  woman  is  thus  dishonoured,  we  shall  not  be 
surprised  to  find  the  whole  basis  of  society  rotten, 
and  can  believe  that  the  road  leading  to  Juggernath’s 
shrine  is  for  fifty  miles  paved  with  men’s  bones,  and 
that  the  altars  of  that  monster  are  stained  with  blood 
and  smeared  with  obscenity.  We  shall  not  find  it 
hard  to  credit  the  awful  sacrifices  which  slavery  has 
offered  on  the  altar  of  human  cruelty,  though  it  has 
bound  and  slain  such  a  host  of  victims  that  their 
bodies,  laid  side  by  side,  would  thrice  girdle  the 
globe  at  the  equator ! 

Sin  has  made  the  earth  the  habitation  of  cruelty. 
When  the  old  king  of  Eboe  died,  by  the  ju-ju  rites 
forty  victims  were  sacrificed.  Nine  of  his  youngest 
wives,  their  ankles  and  wrists  broken,  and  in  excruci¬ 
ating  pain,  were  put  at  the  bottom  of  the  open  grave 
pit,  with  the  dead  body,  to  await  death  by  slow  star¬ 
vation,  guards  being  stationed  about  the  grave  with 
clubs  to  beat  back  any  of  them  if  they  moved  from 
their  place.  Other  human  beings  were  bored  through 
the  feet  and  hung  from  high  trees  heads  downward 
to  die  in  agony.  And  these  are  but  specimen-pages 
from  that  bloody  book  of  human  history  which  records 
deeds  of  which  it  is  a  shame  even  to  speak. 

The  missionary  who  has  witnessed  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation  is  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  He  sees  it  lifting  the  individual  to  his  true 
level  and  putting  him  in  his  normal  place.  Naked¬ 
ness  is  decently  clad;  the  hut  or  hovel,  where  beasts 
made  their  stalls  side  by  side  with  human  beings, 
gives  place  to  neat  and  comely  houses,  where  modesty 


336 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


is  no  longer  put  to  shame,  and  order  reigns.  Children 
are  nourished  and  cherished  with  loving  tenderness, 
and  breathe  the  atmosphere  of  a  pious,  prayerful 
home.  Woman  is  dignified  and  honoured,  wedlock 
sanctified,  and  family  life  glorified.  Honest  toil  is 
respected  and  rewarded ;  the  serf  and  the  slave  are 
made  free  and  independent ;  ignorance  and  idleness, 
the  handmaids  of  vice,  are  exchanged  for  virtue’s 
habitual  attendants — industry  and  intelligence. 

Isaac  Taylor  once  attempted  a  catalogue  of  the 
great  social  evils:  polygamy,  legalized  prostitution 
and  capricious  divorce,  bloody  and  brutal  games, 
rapacious  and  offensive  wars,  death  and  punishment 
by  torture,  infanticide,  caste  and  slavery.  From  all 
lands  where  the  cross  has  been  set  up  and  the  gospel 
faithfully  preached,  these  nine  gigantic  forms  of 
wrong  are  either  retreating  or  are  no  more  found. 
A  new  standard  of  manhood  is  also  erected,  and  new 
lessons  in  living,  taught.  So  surely  as  Christ  becomes 
Master,  so  surely  do  these  owls  of  the  midnight  flee 
before  the  new  dawn. 

Instead  of  polygamy,  once  more,  as  at  the  begin¬ 
ning,  one  man  and  one  woman  become  “one  flesh.” 
The  law,  instead  of  shielding  vice  by  legalizing  it, 
becomes  the  avenging  sword  to  punish  unbridled 
lust ;  and  easy  divorce  is  condemned  as  the  apology 
and  refuge  of  “free  love.”  Infanticide  is  branded 
as  both  cruelty  and  crime,  fatal  both  to  natural  affec¬ 
tion  and  a  good  conscience.  Aggressive  warfare 
becomes  highway  robbery  and  organized  slaughter. 
Bloody  and  brutal  games  are  considered  as  lowering 
man  to  the  level  of  the  brute,  if  not  the  demon; 
and  needless  torture  even  of  the  worst  criminal, 
inflicts  a  pang  upon  the  community  scarcely  less  keen 
than  the  anguish  of  the  victim.  Caste  is  seen  to  be 
an  insult  to  God,  because  a  dishonour  to  His  image 
in  man;  and  slavery  becomes,  to  an  enlightened 
Christian  society,  the  breach  of  all  duty  and  love 
both  to  God  and  our  neighbour — the  violation  of  the 


MIRACLES  OF  GRACE. 


337 


whole  decalogue  at  once — a  conspiracy  of  man  to  rob 
and  ruin,  debauch  and  defraud,  degrade  and  dishon¬ 
our  his  fellow-man — to  make  impossible  a  true  life  for 
the  individual,  the  family,  or  the  state;  to  set  a  pre¬ 
mium  on  lies  and  lusts,  covetousness  and  cruelty; 
to  cage  God’s  nightingale — the  human  soul — and 
put  out  its  eyes,  that  it  may  become  content  behind 
bars  and  sing  when  it  can  no  longer  soar ! 

There  are  those  who  dispute  the  unique  claims  of 
the  Son  of  God,  and  talk  of  Christianity  as  one  of 
the  great  religions,  all  of  which  have  their  right  to  a 
seat  in  the  world’s  parliament.  But  the  difference 
between  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  any  other  religion 
is  one  not  of  degree  only,  but  of  kind .  Let  these 
claimants  to  the  honour  of  equal  rank  bring  forth 
their  witnesses.  Greece  boasted  her  religion  of 
beauty  and  art,  wisdom  and  knowledge ;  Rome,  her 
manly  virtue  and  martial  valour,  model  laws  and  ideal 
state.  Did  the  refinement  and  culture  of  Athens, 
even  in  the  age  of  Pericles,  or  the  noble  statesman¬ 
ship  and  heroic  courage  of  Rome  in  the  days  of 
Augustus,  actually  uplift  society  from  moral  degra¬ 
dation  and  depravity?  Did  these  “religions”  banish 
gladiatorial  games  and  the  cruelties  of  the  arena, 
and  aggressive  wars  of  conquest?  Did  they  prevent 
worn-out  slaves  and  even  aged  parents  from  being 
turned  out  to  die ;  or,  the  modesty  of  maidens  from 
being  sacrificed  at  temple  altars  in  the  name  of  re¬ 
ligion?  Did  Athens  or  Rome  build  hospitals  or 
asylums  for  the  deaf  and  dumb  and  blind  and  crip¬ 
pled  and  incurably  diseased?  Let  Buddha,  “  Light  of 
Asia,”  and  Brahma,  India’s  saviour,  tell  us  whether 
they  made  impossible  the  murder  of  the  innocents, 
the  funeral  pyre  and  the  torture  fire,  the  car  of  Jug- 
gernath,  the  hook-swing,  the  bed  of  spikes,  the 
caste  walls,  the  child  marriage,  the  worship  of  the 
cow  and  the  trampling  of  woman? 

Now  let  the  Christian  missionary  testify!  Where- 
ever  Christ  has  found  a  throne,  the  arena  is  in 


338 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


ruins.  Warfare  yields  to  peaceful  arbitration,  when 
it  is  not  needful  as  a  check  upon  despots  or  lawless 
rioters  and  anarchists.  The  mercenary  spirit  gives 
place  to  the  merciful,  and  poverty  finds  pity,  and 
suffering  is  soothed  by  compassion.  Christian  lands 
build  not  only  schools  and  colleges,  but  great  homes 
where  sickness  and  misfortune  find  refuge  and  loving 
ministries.  Man’s  inalienable  rights  find  their  Magna 
Chart  a ,  and  even  the  animal  creation  profits  by  the 
compassion  which  Christ  teaches.  Christianity  is  the 
only  faith  that  has  ever  been  able  to  turn  the  world 
upside  down,  and  restore  the  true  and  original  order, 
so  that  where  man  had  become  the  worshipper  of 
beasts  and  the  slave  of  his  own  lusts,  he  has  once 
more  asserted  the  supremacy  of  conscience  and  re¬ 
gained  dominion. 

The  whole  history  of  modern  missions  abounds  in 
the  sublime.  It  is  a  panorama  of  wonders.  Take 
one  more  example  out  of  hundreds  that  might  be  cited. 
In  Japan,  without  any  injustice  to  the  others  who 
compose  that  noble  band  who  have  sought  the  true 
illumination  of  the  Sunrise  Kingdom,  we  may  men¬ 
tion  the  name  of  John  C.  Hepburn,  M.D.,  LL.D., 
as  facile  princeps.  He  arrived  at  Kanagawa  October 
1 8,  1859;  and,  although  not  the  first  to  enter  those 
ports  after  the  Townsend-Harris  treaty  of  1858,  he 
has  perhaps  rendered  to  the  Island  Empire  the  most 
distinguished  service  yet  permitted  to  any  one  man. 
In  December,  1862,  he  located  at  Yokohama,  doing 
daily  dispensary  and  lexicographic  work,  and  teaching 
on  Sundays.  For  over  thirty-three  years  he  has  been 
almost  continuously  a  resident  of  the  Island  Empire, 
even  his  temporary  absences  being  in  the  interests  of 
Japanese  civilization.  During  two  winters  he  was 
in  Shanghai  printing  his  dictionary,  and  has  more 
than  once  visited  America.  But  over  the  entire 
empire  for  the  period  of  a  generation  this  man  has 
been  known  as  a  medical  missionary,  an  educator  of 
the  very  first  rank,  whose  services  were  sought  in 


MIRACLES  OF  GRACE. 


339 


vain  at  high  prices  by  the  Japanese  Government;  as 
a  Christian  statesman  and  philanthropist  untiring  in 
his  devotion  to  the  well-being  of  the  nation ;  but 
principally  as  the  chief  translator  of  the  Holy  Scrip¬ 
tures.  And  no  more  sublime  hour  has  been  reached 
in  the  history  of  this  awakening  people,  than  when, 
after  nearly  thirty  years  of  patient  toil,  holding  in  his 
hands  the  two  volumes  of  the  completed  Word  of 
God,  he  formally  presented  the  Japanese  Bible  to  the 
nation. 

When  Rev.  Dr.  Inglis,  of  Aneityum,  was  asked  to 
make  a  speech  before  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland,  and  was  cautioned  to  be 
brief,  he  said: 

“  Fathers  and  brethren,  we  are  told  that  mission¬ 
aries  should  content  themselves  with  stating  facts, 
and  leave  the  Church  to  draw  the  inference.  I  wish 
to  bring  three  facts  to  your  notice. 

“First,  I  place  on  your  table,”  suiting  the  action 
to  the  word,  “the  Shorter  Catechism  translated  into 
the  language  of  Aneityum. 

“  Second ,  I  place  on  your  table  also  ‘  Pilgrim’s 
Progress  ’  translated  into  the  language  of  Aneityum.” 

Then,  taking  into  his  hands  a  large  volume,  while 
he  looked  longingly  on  the  pages  that  had  cost  him 
years  of  toil,  he  laid  it  on  the  table,  and  said : 

“  Third,  I  place  on  your  table  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
Old  and  New  Testament,  translated  into  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  Aneityum,  and  now  leave  the  Church  to 
draw  the  inference,”  and  sat  down  amid  a  storm  of 
applause. 


VII. 


RAPIDITY  OF  RESULTS. 

God  shows  His  power  both  in  the  quality  and 
quantity  of  His  work;  and  perhaps  no  proofs  of  His 
energy  are  more  convincing  in  the  sphere  of  mis¬ 
sions  than  those  furnished  in  the  astonishing  rapidity 
with  which  results  of  great  magnitude  have  been 
wrought. 

This  may  be  made  to  appear  most  clearly  if  we 
take  a  cursory  glance  over  the  entire  century  since 
Carey  sailed  for  India,  and,  without  tarrying  at  any 
point,  sweep  round  the  vast  circle  of  the  work  ac¬ 
complished,  and  get  at  least  a  comprehensive 
glimpse  of  the  stupendous  changes  wrought  within 
these  hundred  years. 

Ninety-six  years  have  swept  by  since  mission 
history  began  in  the  South  Seas.  At  least  fourteen 
years  of  labour  passed  before  there  was  the  first  con¬ 
vert  in  Tahiti.  Then,  and  while  the  missionaries 
were  absent  from  the  island,  Tuahine  and  another  of 
the  natives,  who  had  been  impressed  with  the  truth 
while  serving  in  a  missionary’s  family,  were  found 
praying  to  God  for  a  new  heart.  Then  Pomare  II. 
gave  up  his  idol-gods;  and,  before  the  missionaries 
had  again  set  foot  on  Tahiti,  a  wonderful  upheaval 
of  society  had  begun.  Since  that  day  in  1811,  the 
converts,  living  and  dead,  in  Western  Polynesia, 
have  numbered  over  a  million ! 

Let  us  now  shorten  the  period  of  our  survey  to  the 
eighty  years  since  1813,  when  the  American  Baptist 
Missionary  Union  was  formed.  Then  Judson  and 
his  wife  were  its  only  representatives  and  Burma  its 
sole  field.  For  ten  years  he  wrought  before  he  had 
been  able  to  gather  one  little  flock  of  eighteen  con¬ 
verts  into  a  church.  Those  ten  years  seemed  com- 

340 


RAPIDITY  OF  RESULTS. 


341 


paratively  fruitless.  But  when  from  across  the  sea 
the  question  was  asked,  “Judson,  what  are  the 
prospects ?”  his  faith,  undiscouraged,  saw  only  a  future 
as  bright  as  the  promises  of  God!  We  now  look 
back  over  this  four-score  years,  and,  not  excluding 
the  first  decade  of  years  of  comparative  famine, 
what  a  glorious  harvest  the  Baptist  Union  has  already 
reaped!  Taking  the  whole  eighty  years  into  our 
reckoning,  one  new  Baptist  church  has  been  organ¬ 
ized  on  heathen  soil  for  every  three  weeks  of  the 
entire  time ;  one  new  convert  has  been  baptized  for 
every  three  hours,  counting  in  day  and  night ;  and  at 
least  one  in  ten  of  such  converts  has  become  an 
active  worker  in  the  field,  himself  a  seed  of  the 
kingdom ! 

Let  us  still  narrow  down  the  time  to  fifty  years, 
and  see  what  signs  and  wonders  He  has  wrought 
who  takes  no  note  of  man’s  calendar  of  time. 

In  Turkey,  more  than  twenty  translations  of  the 
Word  of  God  in  the  languages  and  dialects  of  living 
peoples  have  been  supplied  during  the  half  century : 
an  average  of  one  new  translation  for  every  thirty 
months !  By  Dr.  Cyrus  H .  Wheeler  and  his  co-workers, 
the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  have  been  dotted  with 
self-sustaining  churches ;  and  a  standard  of  giving,  so 
exalted  and  apostolic,  has  been  erected,  that  where- 
ever  ten  disciples  could  be  found,  a  church  could  be 
gathered  which  would  support  its  own  pastor.  For 
each  disciple  gave  a  tenth  of  his  income,  and  out  of 
ten  such  tithes,  a  sum  could  be  realized  equal  to  the 
average  income  of  the  givers;  and  so  the  native 
pastor,  willing  to  live  on  a  level  with  his  people, 
could  have  enough  to  keep  him  from  want.  Think 
of  such  model  churches  in  territory  newly  occupied  for 
Christ ! 

When,  in  1878,  the  jubilee  of  the  baptism  of  the 
first  Karen  convert  was  kept,  the  Kho-Thah-Byu 
Memorial  Hall  was  joyfully  dedicated,  with  its  capaci¬ 
ous  audience-chamber  and  various  accessories.  But 


342 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


what  a  host  of  converts  had  those  fifty  years  seen 
gathered  to  Christ!  not  less  than  sixty  thousand, 
half  of  whom  were  living  to  take  part  in  the  celebra¬ 
tion.  Sir  Charles  Bernard  reckons  the  present  Chris¬ 
tian  community  at  200,000,  and  it  has  five  hundred 
self-sustaining  churches. 

In  China,  the  era  of  missions  properly  began  in 
1842;  fifty  years  later,  there  were  fifty  thousand 
converts,  and  the  ratio  of  increase  during  the  quar¬ 
ter  century  between  1863  and  1888  was  eighteen¬ 
fold! 

The  fifty  years  in  the  Fiji  Islands  from  1835  to 
1885,  saw  changes  so  wonderful  that  they  defy  ade¬ 
quate  description.  When  James  Calvert  went  there 
his  first  duty  was  to  gather  up  and  bury  the  skulls, 
hands  and  feet,  of  eighty  victims,  sacrificed  at  a  can¬ 
nibal  feast.  He  lived  to  see  the  very  people  who 
had  taken  part  in  that  horrible  meal  seated  about  the 
Lord’s  table  to  eat  of  the  bread  and  drink  of  the  cup 
that  are  the  emblems  of  His  Body  and  Blood.  At 
the  close  of  that  fifty  years  thirteen  hundred 
churches  of  Christ  could  be  counted,  some  of  them 
standing  on  the  site  of  cannibal  ovens,  and  out  of  a 
population  of  110,000,  104,000  were  habitual  attend¬ 
ants  at  places  of  worship.  And  in  no  part  of  Scot¬ 
land  could  there  be  found  fewer  homes  where  no 
family  worship  hallows  household  life. 

Forty-three  years  were  spent  by  Eliza  Agnew  at 
the  girls’  seminary,  in  Oodooville,  Ceylon.  She  was 
called  the  “mother  of  a  thousand  daughters,”  for 
she  had  taken  part  in  the  training  of  three  successive 
generations  of  Ceylonese  girls ;  teaching  the  daugh¬ 
ters  and  even  granddaughters  of  her  original  schol¬ 
ars.  When  she  laid  down  her  work,  it  was  found 
that  not  a  single  girl  who  had  gone  through  the  full 
course  under  this  saintly  teacher  had  gone  back 
unconverted  to  a  heathen  home ;  and  upwards  of  six 
hundred  whom  she  had  taught  were  penetrating  with 
the  light  of  the  gospel  the  darkness  of  Indian  zena- 


RAPIDITY  OF  RESULTS. 


343 


nas!  It  may  be  doubted  whether  a  fuller  cup  of  ser¬ 
vice  has  ever  been  offered  to  the  Saviour  of  souls  by 
any  woman  of  the  century. 

Look  at  the  contrasts  of  thirty  years  in  Upper  Bur¬ 
ma,  1860-1890.  When  Theebau  was  inaugurated 
as  King  of  Upper  Burma,  at  Mandalay,  he  was  a 
monster  of  cruelty,  and  the  event  was  celebrated  by 
a  massacre  so  horrible  that  several  hundred  of  the 
nobility,  and  even  members  of  the  king’s  own  family, 
were  among  the  victims.  The  sacrifice  of  human 
life  was  so  common,  that  when  the  city  of  Mandalay 
was  built,  fifty-six  young  girls  were  slain,  that  the 
eight  gates  of  the  city  might  by  their  blood  be  secure 
from  all  invaders.  To  attempt  missions  in  such  a 
locality  meant  captivity,  if  not  martyrdom,  to  who¬ 
ever  undertook  the  work. 

•  Thirty  years  later,  in  that  same  city,  the  Baptist 
Missionary  Conference  was  held,  and  during  the  con¬ 
ference  the  Judson  Memorial  Church  was  dedicated. 
Burmese  Christians  had  given  eight  thousand  rupees 
toward  the  cost;  it  was  a  native  Karen  choir  that 
led  the  service  of  sacred  song;  and  at  the  closing 
communion  of  the  Lord’s  Supper,  Tamils  and  Telu- 
gus,  Burmans  and  Karens,  Shans  and  Tounghus, 
English  and  Eurasians,  Americans  and  Chinamen, 
representatives  of  five  hundred  churches  and  30,000 
believers  in  Burma,  sat  down  together  to  keep  the 
sacred  supper — bound  in  one  bundle  of  life. 

Let  us  still  shorten  the  time  to  a  quarter  century . 
Johann  Gerhard  Oncken,  born  Varel,  Oldenburg, 
about  1800,  and  in  early  life  a  domestic  servant,  in 
young  manhood  opened  a  book  shop  at  Hamburg, 
joined  the  English  Independents,  and  became  agent 
of  the  Edinburgh  Bible  Society  and  Lower  Saxony 
Tract  Society.  In  April,  1834,  about  34  years  old, 
he  asked  Dr.  Barnas  Sears  of  Brown  University,  then 
in  Hamburg,  to  baptize  him  and  six  others  and  form 
them  into  a  Baptist  Church,  of  which  Oncken 
became  pastor;  and  next  year  the  American  Baptists 


344 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OE  THE  APOSTLES. 


made  him  their  missionary.  Then  began  a  career 
so  remarkable  that  it  can  be  scarcely  believed.  He 
visited  all  parts  of  Germany  and  Denmark,  preach¬ 
ing,  scattering  Bibles  and  tracts  and  organizing 
churches.  He  faced  persecution  and  was  several 
times  imprisoned;  but,  in  1842,  during  the  great 
fire,  he  with  his  family  and  congregation  so  helped 
homeless  sufferers,  that  the  Senate  publicly  decreed 
to  them  the  right  of  unhindered  worship,  and  he 
gave  himself  anew  to  missionary  work. 

Twenty -five  years  passed,  and  sixty-five  churches 
with  seven  hundred  and  fifty  stations  had  been  estab¬ 
lished,  with  nearly  ten  thousand  members  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty  ministers  and  Bible  readers; 
Bibles  and  tracts  had  been  scattered  by  the  million 
pages,  and  fifty  millions  of  people  had  heard  the 
gospel.  Give  us  two  hundred  and  fifty  churches 
like  Oncken’s  at  Hamburg,  and  we  can,  in  twenty- 
five  years  more,  secure  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
to  every  human  soul ! 

Dr.  John  Geddie  was  at  Aneityum  only  twenty- 
four  years ,  from  1848  to  1872.  On  the  tablet  reared 
to  his  memory  we  read :  “When  he  landed  in  1848, 
there  were  no  Christians;  when  he  left  in  1872,  there 
were  no  heathens/* 

John  Williams’s  course  reached  over  but  twenty-two 
years,  from  1817  to  1839.  Five  years  before  he  fell  a 
martyr  at  Erromanga,  the  gospel  had  been  carried 
over  a  circle  of  four  thousand  miles  diameter,  whose 
centre  is  Tahiti.  There  lies  a  vast  Pacific  archi¬ 
pelago,  within  whose  circumference  of  twelve 
thousand  miles  are  included  the  Raratongan, 
Friendly,  Cook,  Society,  Navigators’,  Marquesas, 
Union,  Austral,  Gambia,  and  Solomon  groups  of 
islands,  and  Low  Archipelago,  -as  well  as  many 
others.  Yet,  within  seventeen  years,  not  only  had 
every  group,  but  every  considerable  island  in  every 
group,  been  evangelized;  the  people  had  burned 
the  maraes,  and  given  up  their  abandoned  idols  as 


RAPIDITY  OF  RESULTS . 


345 


trophies  to  the  missionaries.  War  spears  had 
become  pulpit  rails  for  the  gospel  of  peace,  and 
the  god  of  war  himself  had  become  a  prop  for  the 
roofs  of  the  homes  where  peace  found  dwelling- 
place  ! 

Robert  W.  McAll’s  sixteen  years  in  France,  from 
1872  to  1888,  finds  no  parallel  in  any  papal  com¬ 
munity.  In  1872  he  opened  one  little  salle  amid  the 
lawless  Communists  of  Belleville ;  sixteen  years 
later,  he  had  1 1 2  salle s ;  and  in  one  year  held  14,000 
religious  meetings,  whereby  probably  a  million  of 
hearers  had  been  reached.  And  even  the  govern¬ 
ment  held  out  to  him  every  encouragement  in  his 
work,  declaring  that  police  force  became  unneces¬ 
sary  in  proportion  as  McAll  meetings  prevailed. 
And  all  this  amazing  success  was  reached  without 
any  outward  attraction  of  art.  A  free  gospel  for 
everybody,  an  open  Bible,  hearty  singing,  plain, 
simple  talks,  self-denying  toil  for  souls — these  were 
all  the  machinery. 

It  is  but  sixteen  years  since  the  great  Pentecost 
in  the  Telugu  country :  and  the  progress  of  gospel  tri¬ 
umph  during  those  years  can  be  compared  only  with 
the  rapidity  of  the  work  in  the  South  Seas.  Souls 
were  ingathered  with  such  amazing  speed  and  in  such 
vast  numbers,  that  it  has  been  doubted  whether  even 
the  first  Pentecost  in  Jerusalem  equalled  it.  The 
church  at  Ongole  became  the  largest  in  the  world, 
numbering  with  its  branches  over  30,000  members. 
And  the  peculiar  feature  of  this  history  is  that  the 
blessing  is  perpetual.  No  one  ingathering  has  per¬ 
haps  ever  been  so  astonishing  from  first  to  last.  The 
revival  has  known  no  cessation  since  its  beginning, 
and  nearly  ten  thousand  souls  were  added  to  the 
Church  during  the  eighteen  months  last  re¬ 
ported  ! 

Harpoot — that  leading  station  of  the  American 
Board  in  Eastern  Turkey,  the  seat  of  the  Euphrates 
College,  and  the  centre  of  widespread  evangelism 


346 


THE  HE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


among  the  Armenians — has  been  the  scene  of  a  quiet, 
but  powerful  work  of  God.  One  of  its  most  vener¬ 
ated  missionaries,  Dr.  H.  N.  Barnum,  once  gave  an 
account  of  fourteen  years  of  labour,  in  preaching, 
establishing  stations,  training  a  native  ministry,  and 
carrying  on  all  the  work  of  evangelization  and  edu¬ 
cation  over  a  wide  territory.  The  question  was 
asked:  “  At  what  cost  was  all  this  done?”  And  the 
answer  was — for  a  sum  less  than  the  cost  of  the 
church  building  in  which  he  was  then  speaking — an 
edifice  worth  probably  150,000  dollars!  Fourteen 
years  of  such  wide-reaching  work  at  an  average 
cost  per  year  of  somewhat  over  10,000  dollars! 

When  Mackay,  at  Formosa,  kept  his  twelfth  anni¬ 
versary,  he  sought  to  gather  all  his  living  converts 
at  the  Lord’s  table — and  twelve  hundred  kept  the 
solemn  feast.  Many  had  died  during  those  twelve 
years,  and  much  time  had  been  spent  at  the  outset  in 
acquiring  a  strange  tongue ;  yet,  notwithstanding  all 
this,  there  was  this  rich  living  harvest  of  twelve 
years’  sowing. 

Seven  years  were  allotted  to  Johnson  in  Sierra 
Leone — among  the  chaotic  mass  of  human  beings, 
the  refuse  from  the  holds  of  slave  ships,  who  could 
hold  no  converse  with  one  another  except  through  a 
bastard  English  dialect ;  who  lived  a  life  of  un¬ 
bridled  lust,  habitual  lying,  thieving  and  quarrelling ; 
who  had  no  honest  trades  to  occupy  their  time  or 
earn  their  living,  but  were  fed  like  paupers  and 
criminals  on  government  rations.  Yet,  out  of  such 
worthless  material,  by  God’s  help,  he  organized  a 
Christian  community,  as  out  of  the  filth  of  earth  the 
divine  forces  of  nature  crystallize  gems,  turning  the 
miry  clay  into  sapphires,  the  sand  into  opals,  and 
even  the  soot  into  diamonds. 

A  like  period  of  seven  years  sufficed  to  establish 
among  the  wild  men  of  North  America  William 
Duncan’s  model  State,  or  Metlakahtla,  a  community 
whose  industry,  intelligence,  virtue  and  piety  were 


RAPIDITY  OF  RESULTS. 


347 


incredible  to  all  who  were  not  eye-witnesses  of  the 
marvels  of  God’s  grace. 

Six  years  on  the  Hawaiian  Islands  saw  almost  a 
complete  revolution.  Seventeen  missionaries  had 
landed  March  31,  1820,  among  a  people  where 
infant-murder,  even  by  the  hands  of  mothers,  was 
common ;  where  modesty  was  unknown  and  traffic 
in  female  virtue  became  a  trade,  and  every  foreign 
vessel  a  floating  Sodom ;  where  no  marriage  law  was 
known,  and  the  nation  was  rapidly  coming  to  ex¬ 
tinction  by  its  own  vices.  Yet,  even  here,  in  1826, 
10,000  natives  met  at  Kawaihae  to  hear  the  gospel; 
at  Hilo  and  Kailua  places  of  worship  were  built 
holding  5,000;  and  at  the  dedication  of  the  church 
at  the  latter  place,  the  rulers  of  the  nation  pledged 
it  to  the  Christians’  God.  In  every  district  of  the 
islands,  Christian  schools  were  found,  with  a  total 
of  400  teachers  and  25,000  pupils. 

Four  years,  as  we  have  seen  already,  sufficed  at 
Hilo  and  Puna  to  work  a  transformation  that  finds 
no  adequate  symbol  but  the  volcanic  upheavals  with 
which  the  Kanakas  are  familiar.  The  eleven  thou¬ 
sand  converts,  gathered  from  1835  to  1839,  represent 
only  one  evidence  of  God’s  miraculous  work.  The 
whole  reconstruction  of  the  community,  from  its  very 
base,  was  a  grander  result  and  a  clearer  proof  of  a 
supernatural  power.  Transient  movements  of  sym¬ 
pathy  and  sensibility  may  account  for  revivals  that 
sweep  like  sudden  tidal  waves  over  a  wide  territory ; 
but  the  permanent  creation  of  an  orderly,  decorous, 
peaceful  Christian  State  must  be  traced  back  to  Him 
who  alone  can  mould  lasting  spiritual  results. 

Three  and  a  half  years  of  John  G.  Paton  on  Aniwa 
saw  a  gigantic  upheaval  of  the  whole  conditions  of 
society.  That  story  is  as  thrilling  as  any  written  in 
the  new  chapters  of  the  Acts,  and  no  narrative  of 
missionary  toils  and  triumphs  is  either  more  read¬ 
able  or  more  romantic,  more  graphic  or  pathetic,  or 
more  abundant  in  proofs  of  supernatural  power.  A 


348 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


religion  that  in  so  short  a  time  can  transform  a  can¬ 
nibal  island  into  a  civilized  community,  with  Christian 
home  life,  Sabbath  sanctities  and  unselfish  ministries; 
that  can  develop  ignorant,  heartless,  brutal  savages 
into  intelligent,  affectionate,  devoted  Christians, 
must  be  more  than  human.  One  of  the  first  mis¬ 
sionaries  to  this  island,  twenty-six  years  before, 
had  been  killed.  In  1866  Dr.  Paton  went  there  to 
reside,  and  there  are  now  1,300  professed  disciples 
on  the  islands  of  the  New  Hebrides  group. 

Two  years  on  Nanumaga  wrought  results  not  less 
marvellous.  When  Thomas  Powell  left  a  native 
evangelist  on  the  island,  the  natives  kept  him  wait¬ 
ing  for  hours  on  the  beach  while  they  sought  to 
avert  the  wrath  of  the  gods,  for  permitting  him  to 
land.  He  found  literally  an  idol-god  in  every  house, 
and  began  to  labour,  with  no  apparent  hope  of  suc¬ 
cess  or  hold  upon  the  people.  Yet,  in  two  years  not 
an  idol  could  be  found ;  the  whole  population 
gathered  in  a  place  of  worship  built  for  Jehovah,  and 
He  was  inhabiting  the  praises  of  those  who  had  just 
before  been  abject  slaves  of  the  lowest  idolatry. 
All  the  native  children  old  enough  to  be  taught 
were  in  attendance  on  school,  and  it  is  no  exaggera¬ 
tion  to  say  that  the  entire  complexion,  and  even  con¬ 
stitution,  of  Nanumagan  society  was  changed. 

We  may  shorten  the  period  of  survey  to  a  single 
year ,  and  we  yet  find  signs  and  wonders.  Not  only 
does  Ongole  furnish  us  an  example  of  10,000  converts 
baptized  in  the  one  year,  1878,  but  during  that  same 
year,  in  Tinnevelly  and  various  other  places  in 
Southern  India,  so  great  was  the  harvest  gathered, 
that  it  has  been  computed  that  50,000  turned  from 
idols  in  that  single  twelvemonth. 

And  what  shall  we  say  when  one  day  proves  with 
God  as  a  thousand  years?  When  Titus  Coan,  on  one 
Sabbath  in  July,  1838,  baptized  over  1,700,  it  was 
thought  scarcely  credible  that  such  oversight  and 
scrutiny  could  have  been  exercised  as  to  keep  out 


RAPIDITY  OF  RESULTS . 


349 


unworthy  candidates.  But,  forty  years  later,  Jewett 
and  Clough  baptized  in  one  day  over  five  hundred 
more  than  Coan  had;  and  that  only  after  the  most 
rigid  examination,  lest  unworthy  persons  should  find 
their  way  into  the  waters  of  baptism. 

Surely  the  triumphs  of  grace  already  recorded  in 
these  pages  belong  to  signs  and  wonders  inexplica¬ 
ble  by  human  power.  Idolatry,  the  most  degraded 
in  type  and  the  most  prolific  in  fruit,  confronted, 
conquered,  uprooted,  destroyed!  Jeremiah  re¬ 
proached  Judah  with  having  gods  as  many  as  cities;* 
but  in  Nanumaga  every  hovel  had  an  idol,  and  in 
India  more  deities  are  worshipped  than  the  wor¬ 
shippers  themselves  number.  Obstacles  have  been 
confronted  which  towered  high  as  mountains  and 
defied  either  removing  or  surmounting.  Yet  see  a 
feeble  few  seize  the  very  centres  and  hold  the  very 
fortresses  of  the  devil !  as  earlier  disciples  dared  to  go 
to  Ephesus,  centre  of  Diana  worship — to  Paphos, 
where  Venus  kept  her  shameless  feasts — to  Babylon 
and  Rome,  where  vast  pagan  empires  held  their  capi¬ 
tal  and  carnival!  Follow  unarmed  men  and  sensitive 
women  as  they  tread  over  paths  lined  with  human 
bones,  and  walk  through  valleys  of  death,  to  assault 
the  image  of  a  modern  Moloch  and  overturn  the 
shrine  of  Juggernath!  Whether  it  be  to  face  the 
despotic  Sultan  and  the  ruthless  Turk  at  the  Golden 
Horn,  or  the  cruel  ruler  of  Uganda,  or  the  savage 
cannibals  of  the  Pacific,  or  the  half  idiotic  Patago¬ 
nians, — the  same  invincible  faith  and  holy  heroism ! 

The  horrors  of  heathenism  defy  any  description. 
Language  is  not  black  enough — hell  itself  is  not  equal 
to  the  needs  of  such  a  portraiture.  Take  infanti¬ 
cide  as  an  example.  Mrs.  Williams  had,  at  Raiatea, 
a  female  servant  who,  after  conversion,  gave  her  an 
awful  glimpse  of  the  customs  that  swayed  all  Poly¬ 
nesia.  A  mother  would  suffocate  a  new-born  babe 
with  a  wet  cloth,  or  with  her  own  hands  strangle  it,  or 

*  Jeremiah  xl.  ia. 


350 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


bury  it  alive — and  feel  no  pang  of  compunction ;  or, 
yet  more  like  a  demon  than  a  brute,  break  joint  after 
joint  of  the  fingers  and  toes  and  then  of  the  arms 
and  legs,  and  if  such  torture  did  not  kill,  finish  the 
deed  by  choking  it  to  death.  One  woman  confessed 
to  thus  having  killed  five,  another  seven,  another 
nine,  and  yet  another,  her  whole  family  of  seventeen ! 
At  a  school  anniversary  an  aged  chief,  before  whom 
six  hundred  children  passed  in  review,  arose  under 
the  force  of  deep  feeling,  and  said:  “ I  must  speak! 
O  that  I  had  known  that  such  good  was  in  store  for 
us!  my  own  children  might  have  been  among  this 
happy  group !  But  I  have  destroyed  them  all — 
nineteen — and  have  not  one  left !  ”  Then  turning  to 
the  king,  his  relative,  he  said,  with  streaming  eyes: 
“You,  my  brother,  saw  me  kill  them  one  after 
another !  Why  did  you  not  stay  this  murderous  hand ! 
and  say,  God  is  about  to  bless  us!  Salvation  is 
coming  to  these  shores! ” 

The  island  of  Raiatea,  the  centre  for  Williams’s 
tours,  was  the  seat  of  both  the  political  power  and 
idolatry  of  the  group ;  there  was  the  Temple  of  the 
Mars,  and  the  Moloch  of  the  South  Seas.  Idleness 
and  iniquity,  cruelty  and  crime,  held  high  carnival. 
The  mind  was  blunted  by  ignorance,  and  the  con¬ 
science  seared  into  insensibility.  And  yet  even 
among  such  a  people  he  was  not  ashamed  to  preach 
the  gospel,  and  believed  it  would  prove  the  power  of 
God.  It  seemed  as  though  association  with  such 
brutes  would  drag  him  down,  but  he  brought  them 
up  to  his  level,  instead  of  sinking  to  theirs.  He 
taught  them  religion,  and  religion  brought  civiliza¬ 
tion,  until  every  house  seemed  a  house  of  prayer, 
and  naked  savages  clothed  and  in  their  right  minds 
sat  down  at  Jesus’  feet.  No  more  a  wilderness  of 
wretched  hovels,  but  three  miles  of  comely  cottages; 
useful  trades  and  mechanic  arts,  and  a  thrifty  com¬ 
merce.  Within  a  year  seven  thousand  idolaters  have 
flung  their  gods  to  the  fires  and  built  a  great  house 


RAPIDITY  OF  RESULTS. 


351 


for  God.  And  so  in  Samoa  five-sixths  of  the  whole 
population  of  sixty  thousand  are  shortly  flocking  to 
him  to  be  taught.  And  all  this  with  no  aid  from  the 
civil  power! 

And  still  God’s  signs  and  wonders  convince  not  the 
unbelieving,  for  some  would  not  be  persuaded  though 
one  rose  from  the  dead.  “  Critics  of  missions”  still 
survive  who  can  look  at  God’s  great  work,  and  yet 
call  missions  either  an  “organized  hypocrisy,  or  a 
disastrous  failure!”  Such  a  judgment  recalls  Dr. 
Johnson’s  verdict  upon  Milton’s  “Lycidas,”  that  it 
is  “no  poem  at  all;”  with  Matthew  Arnold’s  quiet 
rejoinder  that  “  such  a  sentence  is  terrible — for  the 
critic /”  Some  guns  kick  so  badly  that,  as  Dr. 
Beecher  used  to  say,  “  it  ^were  better  to  be  before 
than  behind  them.” 

We  have  not  written  to  convince  sceptics  or 
silence  critics,  but  to  encourage  believing  and  praying 
saints  who  find  new  food  for  faith  and  prayer  in 
every  new  fact  that  proves  a  present  and  a  living 
God.  To  such,  God’s  signs  and  wonders  are  a  daily 
inspiration ;  and  all  missionary  history  becomes  one 
continuous  miracle.  These  signs  have  not  been 
wrought  “in  a  corner;”  they  are  found  everywhere, 
and  attested  by  witnesses  who  are  beyond  impeach¬ 
ment,  whether  for  competency  or  integrity,  and  who 
are  too  many  in  number  for  honest  doubt  to  remain. 

A  brilliant  but  erratic  American  once  replied  to  an 
opponent  in  debate, — who  sought  to  discredit  his 
statements  of  fact,  by  saying  that  “  of  such  facts 
he  himself  had  no  knowledge  ” — “  My  knowledge, 
however  limited,  cannot  be  set  aside  on  account  of 
another’s  ignorance,  however  extensive!”  The  mas¬ 
terly  retort  is  but  too  applicable  to  some  who  with  a 
superficial  denial  would  sweep  away  the  testimony  of 
that  noble  band  of  witnesses  who,  from  Carey  to 
Mackay,  and  over  a  field  that  reaches  from  Japan  to 
Liberia,  and  from  Greenland  to  Tierra  del  Fuego, 
attest  gospel  conquests. 


VIII. 


ANSWERS  TO  PRAYER. 

As  might  be  anticipated,  this  century  of  missions 
bears  no  mark  of  the  wonder-work  of  God  more  con¬ 
spicuous  than  the  multiplied  and  marvellous  answers 
to  prayer . 

Every  conspicuous  step  and  stage  of  progress  is 
directly  traceable  to  prevailing,  believing,  expectant 
supplication.  When  Jonathan  Edwards  blew  his 
trumpet  blast,  calling  all  believers  to  united  prayer 
for  a  new  and  world-wide  Pentecost,  Northampton 
in  England  echoed  the  clarion  peal  of  the  New 
England  Northampton,  and  the  monthly  concert  of 
prayer,  established  thirty-seven  years  later,  was  the 
beginning  of  a  stated  monthly  season  of  such 
united,  organized  pleading  with  God  for  a  lost 
world. 

Carey  was  the  Moses  and  Joshua  of  the  new  move¬ 
ment,  both  in  one ;  and  nothing  marked  him  so  con¬ 
spicuously  as  the  rod  of  God  in  his  hand — the  power 
of  humble,  believing  supplication.  Had  Carey  not 
known  how  to  pray,  the  missionary  century  had  not 
yet  dawned,  or  had  waited  for  some  other  praying 
soul  to  roll  back  the  curtain  of  the  long  night.  God 
has  compelled  his  saints  to  seek  Him  at  the  throne 
of  grace,  so  that  every  new  advance  might  be  so 
plainly  due  to  His  power  that  even  the  unbeliever 
might  be  constrained  to  confess:  “  Surely  this  is  the 
finger  of  God!” 

He  meant  that  the  century  of  missions  should  be 
to  the  Church  at  home  as  important  as  to  the  distant 
fields  of  missions  abroad;  and,  in  fact,  the  heart 
must  have  a  strong  pulse  if  the  life  currents  of  blood 
are  to  be  driven  to  the  fingers'  ends.  And  so  no 
age,  since  the  Apostolic,  has  been  so  peculiar  for  the 

352 


ANSWERS  TO  FRA  YER. 


353 


revival  of  prayer.  Every  new  Pentecost  has  had  its 
preparatory  period  of  supplication — of  waiting  for 
enduement ;  and  sometimes  the  time  of  tarrying  has 
been  lengthened  from  “ten  days”  to  as  many  weeks, 
months,  or  even  years;  but  never  has  there  been  an 
outpouring  of  the  Divine  Spirit  from  God  without  a 
previous  outpouring  of  the  human  spirit  toward 
God.  To  vindicate  this  statement  would  require  us 
to  trace  the  whole  history  of  missions,  for  the  field 
of  such  display  of  divine  power  covers  the  ages. 
Yet  every  missionary  biography,  from  those  of  Eliot 
and  Edwards,  Brainerd  and  Carey,  down  to  Living¬ 
stone  and  Burns,  Hudson  Taylor  and  John  E. 
Clough,  tells  the  same  story  :  prayer  has  been  the 
preparation  for  every  new  triumph,  and  the  secret 
of  all  success;  and  so,  if  greater  triumphs  and 
successes  lie  before  us,  more  fervent  and  faithful 
praying  must  be  their  forerunner  and  herald! 

If  this  be  so,  we  must  fix  this  fact  in  mind  by 
repetition,  sound  it  out  as  with  God’s  own  trump, 
write  it  as  in  letters  of  light,  on  the  very  firmament 
of  missions — that  the  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
opened  with  prevailing  prayer,  and  in  each  new 
chapter  records  its  new  triumphs. 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
fallow  soil  began  to  be  sown  with  those  seeds  of  mis¬ 
sionary  enterprise  which  came  to  the  surface  a  half 
century  later.  We  repeat  what  has  been  said,  that 
Carey’s  movements  were  only  the  germinating  of  what 
Edwards,  and  others  like  him,  had  planted.  When 
in  1784,  at  that  Northamptonshire  Baptist  Associa¬ 
tion,  John  Sutcliff,  of  Olney,  reported,  recommend¬ 
ing  a  stated  monthly  meeting  to  bewail  the  low  state 
of  missions,  and  to  implore  God  for  a  general  revival 
of  pure  piety,  and  a  world-wide  outpouring  of  power 
from  on  high,  the  first  Monday  of  each  month  was 
the  time  designated,  and  John  Ryland,  Jr.,  drew  up 
the  plan.  Soon  after,  Sutcliff  republished  Edward’s 
appeal,  thus  acknowledging  that  this  new  advance 


354 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


was  the  result  of  seed  sown  as  early  as  1747,  and 
wholly  due  to  prayer,  which  was  now  formally  recog¬ 
nized  as  the  one  hope  alike  of  the  Church  and  the 
world. 

Three  years  later,  Carey  was  ordained  at  Moulton, 
and  five  years  after  that  came  the  compact  at  Ketter¬ 
ing,  which  was  the  Magna  Charta  of  modern  mis¬ 
sions;  and  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  was  born, 
now  mother  of  so  large  a  family  of  societies.  That 
small  but  famous  “fund”  of  thirteen  pounds  and 
one  half-crown,  laid  by  that  little  band  of  twelve  on 
the  altar  that  so  sanctified  and  magnified  the  gift, 
was,  by  God’s  decree,  the  small  offering  it  was,  and 
from  His  poor,  because  He  meant  to  show  that  it  was 
not  by  might  or  by  power,  not  by  numbers  or  by 
wealth,  but  by  His  Spirit,  that  this  work  is  to  be  car¬ 
ried  on. 

Those  who,  like  Sydney  Smith,  sneered  at  the 
“  consecrated  cobblers  ”  and  “apostates”  from  the 
humblest  callings  of  life,  who  with  a  hundred  half- 
crowns  would  attempt  world-wide  missions — were 
blind  to  the  open  mystery  of  God’s  dealings,  who 
always  chooses  the  base  and  weak  and  despised 
nothings  to  bring  to  naught  the  great  and  strong 
and  mighty  somethings  ;  and  who  deliberately 
chooses  and  uses  the  few  and  the  poor,  the  lowly 
and  the  obscure,  that  the  excellency  of  the  power 
may  be  of  God  and  not  of  man,  and  that  no  flesh 
should  glory  in  His  presence.  Had  that  first  roll  of 
subscribers  held  twelve  hundred  distinguished  names, 
with  some  prince  of  royal  blood  as  patron,  and  had 
that  sum  been  thirteen  thousand  pounds  to  start 
with,  missions  might  have  waited  another  century 
for  their  real  beginning. 

Those  who  knew,  and  at  first  opposed,  Carey,  came 
to  feel  that  he  was  a  man  of  prayer  and  that  the  God 
of  Prayer  was  back  of  him.  It  was  prayer  that  found 
expression  in  the  monthly  concert,  that  baptized 
with  power  Carey’s  “  Inquiry,”  that  made  that  map 


ANSWERS  TO  PR  A  YER. 


355 


at  Moulton  luminous  with  divine  light  and  vocal  with 
a  world’s  mute  appeal ;  it  was  prayer  that  led  to  that 
sermon  in  Nottingham  and  that  gathering  in  Widow 
Wallis’  parlour  at  Kettering,  and  to  Carey’s  offer  of 
himself  in  1793. 

God  saw  that  the  Church  would  never  take  up,  or 
be  fit  to  take  up,  this  Apostolic  work  without  a  revi¬ 
val  of  Apostolic  faith  in  divine  power  and  in  the 
prayer  that  alone  commands  that  power.  Reliance 
on  human  patronage,  and  the  kindred  confidence  in 
numbers  and  riches,  are  fatal  hindrances  to  missions. 
When  Carey  preached  his  now  immortal  sermon, 
whose  divine  quality  was  found  in  its  unction,  he 
said:  “  Saviour,  Thy  greatest  things  have  had  small¬ 
est  beginnings.”  It  was  to  him  a  great  encourage¬ 
ment  that  when  God  called  Abraham  he  was  alone. 
(Isa.  1.  1.)  And  this  same  truth  of  insignificant  begin¬ 
ning  was  illustrated  in  Widow  Wallis’  house  on 
October  2d,  1792. 

Upon  this  one  form  of  signs  and  wonders  our 
minds  have  need,  therefore,  to  linger,  as  bees  upon 
a  bloom,  for  the  nectaries  of  our  Christian  life  are 
here  to  be  found:  we  refer  to  these  Answers  to 
Prayer . 

God  has  taken  infinite  care  to  fasten  in  the  minds 
of  believers  the  power  of  supplication  in  the  name  of 
Christ  to  work  supernatural  results.  In  the  Word 
’of  God  there  are  at  least  ten  very  marked  lessons  on 
prayer;  and  these  lessons  are  progressive — they 
advance  from  the  simplest  rudiments,  in  a  distinct 
order  or  series,  in  which  each  step  must  be  taken  on 
the  way  to  the  next — each  lesson  learned,  if  the  suc¬ 
ceeding  one  is  to  be  understood.  For  instance,  if 
we  combine  the  gospel  narratives  and  observe  the 
development  of  the  doctrine,  we  shall  find  that  we 
are  successively  taught  the  nature  of  prayer  as  ask¬ 
ing  of  God;  then  the  negative  and  positive  conditions 
of  acceptable,  prevailing  prayer,  such  as  a  frame  of 
forgiveness,  of  faith  in  God’s  promise,  of  importunate 


356 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


earnestness,  of  devout  expectancy,  of  mutual  agree¬ 
ment  in  the  Spirit,  of  accordance  with  the  will  of 
God,  etc.  The  climax  of  all  these  lessons  is  reached 
in  that  expressly  new  lesson  taught  by  our  Lord,  as 
to  asking  in  His  Name ;  that  is,  by  virtue  of  our 
identity  with  Him.  When  prayer  is  offered  in 
another’s  name,  that  other  becomes  the  real  suppliant , 
whoever  presents  the  request .  And  so  our  Lord 
teaches  us  that  from  the  time  when  our  oneness  with 
Him  is  recognized  and  realized  as  based  upon  our 
membership  in  His  body,  we  may  ask  in  His  name, 
by  His  power,  in  His  stead;  so  that  the  petition 
becomes  the  petition  of  Him  in  whose  name  it  .is 
offered ,  as  Esther’s  writing,  when  signed  and  sealed 
in  the  name  of  King  Ahasuerus,  became  his  decree.* 

Behold  these  lessons  gathered  up  and  woven  into 
the  fabric  of  one  superb  metaphorical  representation 
in  the  Apocalypse.  In  the  eighth  chapter,  the  visions 
of  the  seer  of  Patmos  open  with  a  solemn  and  mys¬ 
terious  half-hour  of  silence  in  heaven.  Before  the 
first  of  the  seven  trumpets  sounds,  the  seven  angels 
stand  silent  before  God,  as  though  waiting  a  signal. 
And  the  half-hour  of  silence  seems  wholly  given  to 
this  revelation  of  the  power  of  prayer. 

The  Angel  of  Intercession  comes  and  stands  at  the 
altar,  holding  in  his  hands  a  golden  censer.  Unto 
him  is  given  much  incense,  that  he  should  add  it. 
unto  the  prayers  of  all  the  saints  upon  the  golden 
altar,  before  the  throne ;  and  the  mingled  smoke  of 
the  incense  and  prayers  of  saints  ascend  like  a  sweet 
savour  before  God  out  of  the  censer.  Then  the 
Angel  takes  the  censer,  fills  it  with  the  fire  of  the 
altar,  and  casts  it  upon  the  earth;  and  astounding 
results  follow — thunderpeals,  lightning  flashes,  voices, 
and  earthquake  convulsions. 

This  parable  in  action  might  still  have  remained 
an  inscrutable  mystery  but  for  a  divine  key  that  is 
in  the  lock,  which  opens  to  us  its  meaning.  We 

*  Compare  John  xvi.  23-27,  Esther  viii.  8. 


ANSWERS  TO  ERA  YER. 


357 


are  here  twice  told  that  it  concerns  the  “ prayers  of 
saints."  And  with  this  key  we  may  open  the  doors 
of  this  great  truth.  Laying  aside  the  figurative 
forms  of  expression,  which  are  like  bronze  gates, 
sculptured  with  allegorical  figures — what  readest 
thou? 

Prayers  of  saints,  offered  in  holy  agreement, 
ascend  like  vapours,  which  blend  and  mingle  in  pure 
white  clouds.  The  great  Intercessor  at  the  Throne 
presents  them  before  God,  made  acceptable  by  His 
own  infinite  merit,  and  thus  they  prevail.  The 
power  of  God  is  put  at  the  disposal  of  praying  souls; 
and  upon  the  earth  wonderful  changes,  convulsions, 
upheavings,  revolutions  take  place.  Prayer  has  gone 
to  heaven,  found  acceptance,  and  returned  in  answers 
of  almighty  power,  as  moisture  goes  up  in  vapour  and 
returns  in  rain.  Supplication,  when  it  is  according  to 
scriptural  conditions,  commands  divine  interposition. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  vision  of  Prayer  as  a  power  in 
the  universe  of  God.  There  is  a  half-hour  silence ;  no 
word  is  spoken.  But  the  silence  has  a  voice.  It 
tells  an  unbelieving  Church  that  whenever  great 
moral  and  spiritual  reformations  and  transforma¬ 
tions,  evolutions  and  revolutions,  are  witnessed, 
somebody  has  been  praying,  though  only  God  may 
trace  the  links  between  the  prayers  and  the  answers. 

The  whole  story  of  missions  is  the  historic  inter¬ 
pretation  of  that  Apocalyptic  vision:  it  is  the  story 
of  answered  prayer.  If  we  would  trace  organized 
mission  effort  back  not  to  its  birth  but  to  its  concep¬ 
tion,  we  must  go  farther  than  Widow  Wallis’  parlour 
at  Kettering,  or  even  the  cobbler’s  shop  at  Hackleton, 
or  Edward’s  appeal  in  1747.  Nearly  twenty  years 
before  that  trumpet-call  to  prayer,  another  great 
movement  had  started  at  Oxford,  where  John  and 
Charles  Wesley,  and  Morgan  and  Kirkham,  Ingham, 
Broughton,  Hervey  and  George  Whitefield  were 
studying  and  praying  to  promote  holiness  and  use¬ 
fulness.  At  the  end  of  six  years  this  little  company 


358 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


numbered  but  sixteen.  But  such  were  some  of  the 
preparations  God  was  making  for  the  birth-hour  of 
modern  missions.  Upon  these  few  men  at  Oxford 
there  came  suddenly  a  blessing  from  on  high,  which 
not  only  changed  the  whole  tenor  of  their  lives,  but 
became  the  mould  of  a  revived  Church  and  the 
matrix  of  modern  missions. 

If  the  history  of  all  that  prayer  has  wrought,  in  the 
century  now  closing,  could  be  written  and  read,  it 
would  be  as  startling  as  the  opening  of  the  books  in 
the  last  great  day.  The  number  is  legion,  of  the 
movements  for  human  weal  whose  secret  source, 
unknown  to  the  people,  has  been  in  prevailing 
prayer. 

The  repeal  of  the  “  Contagious  Diseases  ”  Act  in 
Britain  was  a  triumph  of  prayer.  Against  the  advo¬ 
cates  of  this  repeal  almost  the  whole  strength  of  the  two 
houses  of  Parliament  was  massed,  but  throughout  the 
kingdom  disciples  were  giving  themselves  to  suppli¬ 
cation.  A  few  men  undertook  to  maintain  a  stand 
against  the  whole  nation,  and  two  or  three  godly 
women  took  their  stand  beside  them,  hooted  at  by  an 
insulting  rabble  and  pelted  by  the  daily  press  with 
merciless  ridicule  as  the  “  howling  sisterhood !  ” 
But  prayer  prevailed  and  the  abhorrent  measure  was 
abolished  by  unanimous  vote. 

Those  who  in  England  and  America  have  watched 
the  slow  steps  by  which  the  way  was  prepared  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  well  know  that  in  that  great 
contest  between  human  rights  and  the  might  of 
organized  selfishness  and  sordidness,  Prayer  turned 
the  scale.  There  were  some  godly  women,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  who  met  at  stated  times  in  Boston  to  claim 
from  God  the  freedom  of  the  slave;  and,  when  the 
wild  waves  of  riot  surged  against  the  very  doors  of 
their  little  place  of  prayer,  they  remained  on  their 
knees  and  were  heard  to  say:  “  Lord,  the  foes  of  God 
and  of  the  slave  molest  us  indeed,  but  they  cannot 
make  us  afraid .”  And  so  the  praying  saints  kept 


ANSWERS  TO  ERA  YER. 


359 


praying,  until  the  fires  of  God  came  down  and 
burned  the  fetters  from  four  millions  of  manacled 
hands. 

That  famous  cartoon  of  the  death  of  St.  Genevieve 
depicts  the  triumph  of  Roman  valour  with  its  pomp 
and  pageantry  of  arms,  side  by  side  with  a  humble 
deathbed  around  which  praying  saints  are  gathered. 
But  it  suggests  how  much  mightier  is  the  power  that 
goes  with  a  few  supplicating  believers  than  all  the 
boasted  might  of  armies. 

Read  the  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles;  linger  over 
the  scenes  at  Hilo  and  Tahiti,  New  Zealand  and  the 
Fiji  isles;  pierce  to  the  church  of  the  cavern  in  the 
Vaudois  vales;  follow  the  Huguenots  in  exile;  study 
the  personal  life  of  Edwards  and  Brainerd,  and  Mills 
and  Carey  and  Judson  and  Johnson;  track  to  their 
closets  and  retreats  in  the  forests  and  caves,  God’s 
praying  ones,  and  you  shall  know  how  God’s  Pente- 
costs  are  but  the  rewarding  ‘ ‘openly”  of  those  who 
have  learned  how  to  get  hold  on  Him  “  in  secret.” 

The  Church,  when  it  is  once  more  a  praying  Church, 
will  boldly  claim  of  God  that  He  shall  stretch  forth 
His  hand  as  the  only  way  to  give  boldness  in  preach¬ 
ing  His  word.  When  it  is  God’s  “work”  we  are 
doing  it  is  our  right  and  privilege  not  only  to  ask, 
but  to  “command”  Him.  (Isa.  xlv.  n.)  Faith  not 
only  offers  a  request,  but  issues  a  fiat — and  says,  it 
shall  be  so.  Prayer,  says  Coleridge,  is 

“  An  affirmation  and  an  act, 

That  bids  eternal  truth  be  fact !  ” 

The  promise  makes  prayer  bold,  for  God’s  word 
cannot  fail.  Fulfilment  is  as  certain  as  past  events 
are  fixed,  and  the  future  becomes  a  present  to  such 
faith.  There  is  a  new  era  of  missions  yet  to  be 
ushered  in  when  the  disciples  of  Christ  learn  to  ask 
in  Jesus’  name,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  for 
the  glory  of  God,  and  with  a  confidence  that  counts 
things  that  are  not  as  though  they  are. 


360 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Missionary  history  has  exemplified  that  superbly 
grand  lesson,  that  prayer,  when  it  prevails,  has  about 
it  a  boldness,  a  holy  audacity,  which  reminds  us  of 
the  prophet  whose  plea  was — 6  6  Do  not  disgrace  the 
Throne  of  Thy  Glory!”  When  a  saint  understands 
that  prayer  has  three  intercessors — the  interceding 
Spirit  within,  the  interceding  suppliant,  and  the  in¬ 
terceding  Christ  before  the  Throne — he  feels  himself 
but  the  channel  through  whom  a  current  passes, 
whose  source  is  the  Holy  Spirit  in  his  heart,  whose 
final  outpour  is  through  our  great  High  Priest  into 
the  bosom  of  the  Father;  and  he  loses  sight  of  him¬ 
self  in  the  thought  of  the  divine  stream,  and  its  spring 
and  its  ocean.  How  can  he  but  be  bold?  Prayer 
becomes  no  more  mere  lame  and  timid  asking — it  is 
claiming  and  laying  hold  of  blessing.  Nay,  it  is  wait¬ 
ing  for  and  welcoming  the  blessing,  as  a  returning 
stream  from  the  heart  of  God,  pouring  back  into  and 
through  the  heart  of  the  supplicant.  While  he  calls, 
God  answers — there  is  converse,  intercourse,  inter¬ 
communication  :  prayer  is  not  only  speaking  to  God, 
but  hearing  Him  speak  in  return.  As  a  Japanese 
convert  said,  it  is  like  the  old-fashioned  well,  where 
one  bucket  comes  down  while  another  goes  up — only 
in  this  case  it  is  the  full  bucket  that  descends !  Such 
prayer  a  true  missionary  has  to  learn,  and  it  is  such 
prayer  that  brings  him  the  conscious  presence 
promised  by  his  Master,  with  its  outcome  of  divine 
wisdom  and  strength.  It  is  such  prayer  that  brings 
to  our  aid  that  consummate  preacher,  the  Holy  Spirit, 
whose  divine  oratory  convinces  and  persuades — who 
has  the  power  of  revelation,  demonstration,  illumi¬ 
nation — who  can  flash  instant  light  into  the  darkest 
mind  and  command  life  to  the  dead. 

What  gracious  blessings  have  come  to  heathen 
souls  in  answer  to  prayer!  The  Rev.  Griffith  John, 
of  Hankow,  records  a  whole  Saturday  spent  in  prayer 
for  a  baptism  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  following 
morning  he  preached  on  the  subject,  and  at  the  close 


ANSWERS  TO  PR  A  YER. 


361 


of  the  service  proposed  a  meeting  for  an  hour  a  day, 
during  the  ensuing  week,  for  special  anointing  from 
above.  From  fifty  to  seventy  of  his  converts  met 
day  by  day,  and  mingled  a  confession  of  their  sins 
with  supplication  for  the  holy  outpouring.  The 
impulse  which  the  native  Church  then  received  has 
never  yet  spent  its  force.  The  mission  in  China, 
begun  in  1847  by  William  Burns,  has  now  increased 
until  it  has  five  separate  centres,  with  thousands  of 
converts,  with  native  preachers  and  pastors  and 
schools  and  medical  missions.  Its  converts  have 
stood  firm  against  persecution,  and  the  abundant 
blessing  has  been  reverently  traced  to  the  monthly 
prayer-meeting  for  China  held  in  the  room  at  Edin¬ 
burgh. 

For  some  years  the  writer  has  been  gather¬ 
ing  and  putting  on  record  authentic  and  striking 
answers  to  prayer.  A  few  of  them,  which  have  car¬ 
ried  unspeakable  blessing  to  his  own  heart,  he 
now  places  on  record  in  these  pages: 

Charles  G.  Finney,  in  his  “  Revival  Lectures  ”  (page 
1 1 2),  tells  of  a  pious  man  in  Western  New  York  sick 
with  consumption.  He  was  poor,  and  had  been  sick 
for  years.  An  unconverted  merchant  was  very  kind  to 
him,  and  the  only  return  he  could  make  was  to  pray 
for  his  salvation.  By-and-by,  to  the  astonishment  of 
everybody,  that  merchant  was  converted,  and  a  great 
revival  followed.  This  poor  man  lingered  several 
years.  After  his  death  his  widow  put  his  diary  into 
Mr.  Finney’s  hands.  From  this  it  appeared  that,  being 
acquainted  with  about  thirty  ministers  and  churches, 
he  set  apart  certain  hours  in  the  day  and  week  to 
pray  for  each  of  them,  and  also  for  different  mission¬ 
ary  stations.  His  diary  contained  entries  like  the  fol¬ 
lowing:  “  To-day  I  have  been  enabled  to  offer  what  I 
call  the  prayer  of  faith  for  the  outpouring  of  the 

Spirit  on  the  -  Church.”  Thus  he  had  gone 

over  a  great  number  of  churches.  Of  the  missionary 
stations  he  mentions  particularly  the  mission  at  Cey- 


362 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Ion.  Not  long  after  the  dates  mentioned,  mighty 
revivals  had  commenced  and  swept  over  that  region, 
nearly  in  the  exact  order  of  his  praying ;  and  in  due 
time  news  came  even  from  Ceylon  of  a  revival  there ! 
Thus  this  man,  too  feeble  in  body  to  leave  his  house, 
was  yet  useful  to  the  world  and  the  Church.  Stand¬ 
ing  between  God  and  the  desolations  of  the  Church, 
and  pouring  out  his  heart  in  believing  prayer,  as  a 
prince  he  had  power  with  God  and  prevailed. 

The  following  incident  was  related  at  Northfield 
by  the  Rev.  J.  Hudson  Taylor:  A  station  in  the 
China  Inland  Mission  was  peculiarly  blessed  of  God. 
Inquirers  were  more  numerous  and  more  easily 
turned  from  dumb  idols  to  serve  the  living  God  than 
at  other  stations.  This  difference  was  a  theme  of 
conversation  and  wonder.  After  a  time  Mr.  Taylor 
returned  to  England,  and  at  a  certain  place  was 
warmly  greeted  by  a  stranger,  who  showed  great 
interest  in  his  mission  work.  This  stranger  was  so 
particular  and  intelligent  in  his  questions  concerning 
one  missionary  and  the  locality  in  which  he  laboured, 
seemed  so  well  acquainted  with  his  helpers,  in¬ 
quirers,  and  the  difficulties  of  that  particular  station, 
that  Mr.  Taylor’s  curiosity  was  aroused  to  find  out 
the  reason  of  this  intimate  knowledge.  To  his  great 
satisfaction,  he  now  learned  that  this  stranger  and 
the  successful  missionary  had  covenanted  together 
as  co-workers.  The  missionary  kept  his  home 
brother  informed  of  all  the  phases  of  his  labour. 
He  gave  him  the  names  of  inquirers,  stations,  hope¬ 
ful  characters  and  difficulties,  and  all  these  the  home 
worker  was  wont  to  spread  out  before  God  in  prevailing 
prayer. 

In  the  recently  published  memoir  of  Adolph 
Saphir,*  there  is  put  on  record  one  of  the  countless 
instances  of  divine  administration  of  missions,  which 
we  cite  because  of  the  many-sided  lesson  taught. 

It  is  the  story  of  how  the  mission  for  the  Jews  was 

*  Memoir  Adolph  Saphir,  D.D.,  by  Rev.  G.  Carlyle,  M.A.,  p.  37  et  seq. 


ANSWERS  TO  FRA  YER. 


3b3 


established  in  Pesth,  Hungary.  Prayer  is  the  key  to 
every  new  mystery  in  this  series  of  marvels.  First, 
the  father  of  this  movement  was  Mr.  R.  Wodrow,  of 
Glasgow,  whose  private  diary  shows  whole  days  of 
fasting  and  prayer  on  behalf  of  Israel.  The  next 
step  was  the  appointment  of  a  deputation,  in  1838, 
consisting  of  those  four  remarkable  men,  Doctors 
Keith  and  Black,  with  Andrew  Bonar  and  Mc- 
Cheyne,  to  visit  lands  where  the  Jews  dwelt,  and 
select  fields  for  missions  to  this  neglected  people. 
The  intolerance  of  the  Austrian  government  seemed 
to  shut  the  door  to  any  work  within  its  dominions, 
and  so,  notwithstanding  the  large  Jewish  population 
there  resident,  Hungary  was  not  embraced  in  the 
plan  of  visitation.  But  God  did  not  propose  that 
this  land  should  be  longer  passed  by;  and  He,  by 
mysterious  links,  joined  the  plan  of  the  deputation  to 
His  own  purposes  for  Hungary. 

Dr.  Black  slipped  from  his  camel’s  back  as  they 
were  crossing  from  Egypt  to  Palestine,  and  the 
seemingly  trifling  accident  proved  sufficiently  serious 
to  change  the  homeward  route  of  Dr.  Black  and 
Dr.  Keith,  by  way  of  the  Danube.  As  they  passed 
through  Pesth,  they  made  some  inquiries  as  to  the 
Jews  there  to  be  found,  little  knowing  what  unseen 
Hand  was  leading  “the  blind  by  a  way  that  they 
knew  not.” 

The  Archduchess  Maria  Dorothea,  then  residing 
in  the  Prince  Palatine’s  palace,  had  some  years  pre¬ 
viously  been  led,  by  a  death  in  her  family,  to  seek 
solace  in  the  Bible,  where  “she  met  Jesus.”  She 
was,  by  the  imperial  law,  forced  to  bring  up  her 
children  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church;  but  as  she 
had  found  the  truth,  she  taught  them,  with  much 
prayer,  the  way  of  faith,  and,  in  her  solitude,  yearned 
and  besought  of  God  that  a  Christian  friend  and 
counsellor  might  be  sent  to  her.  In  a  window  of  her 
boudoir,  which  overlooked  the  city  with  its  hundred 
thousand  people,  day  by  day,  for  seven  years,  she 


364 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


had  poured  out  her  soul  in  prayer  to  God  for  some 
one  to  carry  the  true  gospel  to  those  around  her ;  at 
times,  in  agony,  stretching  out  imploring  hands  to 
God  for  at  least  one  messenger  of  the  cross  to  come 
to  Hungary. 

The  year  of  1840  came,  with  Drs.  Keith’s  and  Black’s 
providential  visit  to  Pesth,  and  Dr.  Keith’s  almost 
fatal  illness  there — and  just  at  this  time  the  arch¬ 
duchess  was  strongly  and  strangely  impressed  that  a 
stranger  was  about  to  arrive  who  would  bring  a 
peculiar  blessing  to  the  Hungarians  she  loved. 
There  was  one  fortnight  particularly,  when,  night 
after  night,  she  awoke  at  the  same  hour,  with  a  vivid 
sense  that  something  was  about  to  take  place  which 
was  to  bring  her  relief.  And  when  at  last  she  heard 
that  Dr.  Keith  was  in  town  dangerously  ill  of  cholera, 
she  said  to  herself,  “  This  is  what  was  to  happen  to 
me.”  And  from  that  hour  her  sleep  was  no  longer 
broken.  She  went  to  the  bedside  of  the  prostrate 
stranger,  and  with  her  own  hands  ministered  to  his 
wants;  and,  as  he  became  better,  told  him  of  her 
longings  and  prayers,  acquainted  him  with  the  state 
of  the  Hungarian  Jews,  and  assured  him  that  if  the 
Church  of  Scotland  would  plant  a  mission  in  Pesth, 
she  would  throw  about  it  all  possible  guards.  And 
so  it  came  to  pass  that  in  the  very  field  which  the 
deputation  purposely  left  out  of  all  their  scheme, 
God  brought  about,  by  link  upon  link  of  His  inscru¬ 
table  providence,  the  famous  mission  associated 
with  the  name  of  ‘ 6  Rabbi  Duncan,”  and  which  was 
the  means  of  giving,  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  Adolph 
Saphir.* 

Thus  came  the  Protestant  gospel  into  Buda- Pesth : 
and  by  what  a  series  of  divine  leadings !  A  man’s 
prayer  in  Glasgow,  a  woman’s  prayer  in  Hungary, 
a  seeming  accident  on  desert  sand,  a  change  of  route, 
an  almost  fatal  illness,  a  visit  of  an  archduchess — 
who  shall  dare  to  doubt  that  the  Hungarian  mission 

*  Bonar’s  u  Mission  of  Inquiry  to  the  Jews.” 


ANSWERS  TO  PR  A  YER. 


365 


was  a  tree  of  God’s  planting !  who  can  wonder  that 
as  the  first  missionaries  went  to  this  new  field  they 
“  felt  wafted  along  by  the  breath  of  prayer,  and  had, 
from  the  very  beginning,  a  mysterious  expectation 
of  success !” 

No  recent  development  of  missionary  zeal  is  more 
startling  than  the  sudden  and  rapid  uprising  of  the 
educated  young  men  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  to 
which  has  been  given  the  title  of  the  ‘  ‘  Modern 
Crusade.” 

From  the  inception  of  this  movement,  as  having  been 
strangely  interlinked  with  it,  the  writer  can  testify 
that,  from  first  to  last,  its  sole  secret  is  prayer. 
More  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  a  missionary,  after 
seventeen  years  of  work  on  the  foreign  field,  lay  on 
his  deathbed.  Suddenly  arousing  himself,  with  great 
emphasis,  he  said :  ‘  ‘  I  have  a  testimony  to  give,  and 
would  best  give  it  now.  Tell  the  Christian  young 
men  in  America  that  the  responsibility  of  saving  the 
world  rests  on  them ;  not  on  the  old  men,  but  on  the 
young.  It  is  past  time  for  holding  back  and  waiting 
for  providences.  I  used  to  think  that  a  missionary 
ought  to  husband  his  strength ;  but  this  is  a  crisis  in 
the  world’s  history,  and  one  man  by  keeping  back 
may  keep  back  others.  Reason  is  profitable  to  di¬ 
rect,  but  the  man  that  rushes  to  duty  is  faithful. 
There  are  times  when  rashness  is  the  rule  and  cau¬ 
tion  the  exception.  I  look  upon  the  Church  as  a 
military  company:  an  army  of  conquest,  not  of  occu¬ 
pation.” 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  this  advice,  one 
thing  is  plain:  the  heart  of  a  dying  missionary  is 
singularly  on  fire  with  a  passionate  zeal  for  souls; 
and  the  dying  eyes  become  gifted  with  the  vision  of 
a  seer,  who  beholds  the  greatness  of  the  crisis,  and 
would  trumpet  forth  a  blast,  calling  young  men  to 
the  duty  of  the  hour. 

While  that  dying  missionary  was  leaving  behind 
his  last  legacy  in  a  message  to  young  men,  there  was 


366 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


at  Princeton,  New  Jersey,  another  missionary,  re¬ 
turned  after  thirty  years*  service  in  India,  who  was 
gathering  in  his  own  house,  from  time  to  time,  a  few 
younger  brethren,  to  urge  on  them  the  same  deep 
conviction — that  on  them  God  had  laid  the  burden  of 
beginning  a  new  missionary  crusade.  He  put  before 
them  the  map  of  the  world,  pressed  the  need  of  an 
organized  movement  among  young  men  to  enter  the 
regions  beyond;  and,  while  he  left  them  to  consider 
and  confer,  he  withdrew  into  a  neighbouring  room 
to  pray.  To  those  prayers  we  may  trace  a  move¬ 
ment  so  mighty  that  already  it  enrolls  on  its  mission¬ 
ary  covenant  more  than  eight  thousand  young  men 
and  women  and  twice  as  many  in  the  mighty  current 
of  its  influence. 

In  1886,  at  Mt.  Hermon,  Massachusetts,  a  few 
hundred  students  met,  at  Mr.  Moody’s  invitation,  for 
a  few  weeks  of  Bible  study  and  prayer.  While  there 
the  young  men,  whose  hearts  had  begun  to  burn  at 
Princeton,  sought  to  kindle  fires  on  other  altars ;  and 
the  number  who  chose  the  foreign  field  rose  from 
twenty-three  to  a  hundred.  Then,  after  much 
prayer,  a  tour  of  the  colleges  was  undertaken,  that 
two  of  their  number  might  bring  the  facts  of  the 
world’s  need  to  the  minds  of  fellow-students  not 
represented  at  that  gathering.  And  now,  both  in 
Britain  and  America,  the  universities  and  colleges  and 
theological  schools  are  becoming  fountains  of  missions. 
And  the  end  is  not  yet — the  movement  grows  rather 
than  loses  in  volume  and  momentum,  and  it  looks 
like  one  of  the  great  developments  of  the  latter 
days.* 

Prayer — Coincidences. 

There  are  remarkable  coincidences  in  missionary 
history  which  show  a  divine  hand,  as  surely  as  the 
release  of  Peter  at  the  very  hour  when  disciples  were 

*  The  second  “  Student  Volunteers’  Convention,”  held  in  Detroit,  Michigan,  in 
February,  1894,  had  the  largest  body  of  accredited  delegates,  ever  gathered  in  any 
missionary  conference. 


ANSWERS  TO  PR  A  YER. 


367 


met  at  the  house  of  Mary,  mother  of  Mark,  praying 
for  him.  Let  one  or  two  examples  suffice  to  prove 
and  to  illustrate  this. 

At  the  precise  time  in  missions  to  Tahiti,  when  the 
labours  of  fourteen  years  seemed  wholly  in  vain — 
when  the  tireless  toil,  faithful  witness  and  unsparing 
self-denial  of  the  early  missionaries  seemed  like 
blows  of  a  feather  against  a  wall  of  adamant — when 
as  yet  not  a  single  convert  had  rewarded  all 
this  long  labour,  and  abominable  idolatry  and  desola¬ 
ting  warfare  seemed  to  reign — one  of  the  clearest 
signs  and  greatest  wonders  of  God’s  power  was  seen 
in  the  South  Seas.  The  directors  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  seriously  proposed  abandoning 
this  fruitless  field.  But  there  were  a  few  who  felt 
that  this  was  the  very  hour  when  God  was  about  to 
rebuke  unbelief  and  reward  faith  in  His  promise  and 
fidelity  to  duty.  Dr.  Haweis  backed  up  his  solemn 
remonstrance  against  the  withdrawal  of  missionaries 
from  the  field  by  another  donation  of  two  hundred 
pounds;  and  Matthew  Wilks,  the  pastor  of  John 
Williams,  said:  “  I  will  sell  my  clothes  from  my 
back  rather  than  give  up  this  work.”  And,  instead 
of  abandoning  the  mission,  it  was  urged  that  a  special 
season  of  united  prayer  be  appointed  that  the  Lord 
of  the  Harvest  would  give  fruit  from  this  long  seed¬ 
sowing.  The  proposal  prevailed ;  letters  of  hope  and 
encouragement  were  sent  to  the  disheartened  toilers 
at  Tahiti ;  and  the  friends  of  missions,  confessing  the 
unbelief  that  had  made  God’s  mighty  works  im¬ 
possible,  implored  God  to  make  bare  His  arm. 

Now  mark  the  coincidence.  Two  vessels  started,  un¬ 
known  to  each  other,  from  opposite  ports — one  from 
Tahiti  bound  for  London,  the  other  from  the  Thames 
bound  for  Tahiti,  and  crossed  each  other’s  track  in 
mid-ocean.  That  from  the  South  Seas  bore  the  let¬ 
ters  from  the  missionaries,  announcing  a  work  of  God 
so  mighty  that  idolatry  was  entirely  overthrown; 
and  the  same  ship  bore  also  the  very  idols  which  a 


368 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


converted  people  had  surrendered  to  the  missionaries. 
That  other  vessel  from  London  carried  to  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  the  letters  of  encouragement  that  bade  them 
hold  on  to  God  and  gave  pledges  of  increased  prayer¬ 
fulness  and  more  earnest  support.  Here  was  not 
only  an  answer  to  prayer,  of  the  most  wonderful  sort, 
but  the  promise  was  literally  fulfilled:  “  Before  they 
call  I  will  answer ;  and  while  they  are  yet  speaking  I 
will  hear.” 

The  great  outpouring  at  Ongole  is  another  proof 
of  a  prayer-answering  God.  In  1853,  at  Albany,  New 
York,  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union  was 
considering  whether  the  fruitless  field  among  the 
Telugus  should  not  be  given  up.  Here,  again,  a  few 
of  God’s  prophets  foresaw  that  if  faith  could  but  tri¬ 
umph  in  this  dark  hour,  a  great  harvest  might  yet 
come  even  to  this  desert  of  Southern  India.  And  the 
“  Lone  Star”  mission  was  not  abandoned  but  rein¬ 
forced  ;  and  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith  ventured,  in  a  singularly 
prophetic  poem,  to  predict  that  the  time  would  come 
when  that  Lone  Star  would  outshine  all  other  mis¬ 
sions.  A  bolder  prophecy  was  never  uttered  by  any 
uninspired  seer.  Twenty-five  years  passed  by  and 
then  God  sent  a  famine  among  that  people,  and  the 
promised  blessing  seemed  farther  off  than  ever. 

In  fact,  that  famine  was,  like  John  the  Baptist,  a 
forerunner  that  prepared  the  way  of  the  Lord.  Dr. 
Clough  had  in  the  interval  joined  the  faithful  Jewett 
— and,  being  a  civil  engineer  by  training,  he  under¬ 
took  to  complete  the  Buckingham  canal,  in  order  to 
get  work  and  wages  for  starving  thousands.  These 
great  gatherings  of  gangs  of  workmen  gave  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  the  simple  telling  of  the  gospel  story. 
The  great  text,  John  iii.  16,  was  again,  as  at  Tahiti, 
sixty-three  years  before,  the  “  Little  Gospel”  from 
which  God's  love  was  made  known;  and,  in  that 
very  field  which  had  been  so  nearly  abandoned  as 
both  fruitless  and  hopeless,  God  gave  the  largest 
and  longest  succession  of  harvests  ever  yet  known 


ANSWERS  TO  ERA  YER. 


3G9 


to  the  missions  of  the  Christian  Church.  These 
two  examples  are  enough  to  prove  to  any  candid 
mind  that  God  is  still  working  signs  in  answer  to 
prayer. 

And,  let  it  be  added,  that,  twelve  years  before  this 
grand  effusion  of  the  Spirit,  and  when  the  prospect 
was  darkest,  a  humble  missionary,  with  his  wife  and 
three  converted  natives,  on  the  first  day  of  the  year, 
climbed  the  high  hill  overlooking  Ongole,  and  there, 
looking  down  on  that  large  town  and  fifty  surround¬ 
ing  villages  sunk  in  idol  worship,  knelt,  and  each  in 
turn  asked  of  God  that  He  would  send  a  missionary 
there,  and  make  that  centre  of  heathenism  a  centre 
of  gospel  light.  For  twelve  years  God  delayed  the 
answer,  and  then  the  blessing  came,  just  where  it 
had  been  besought,  only  far  more  abundantly  than 
it  had  been  expected,  and  it  has  not  yet  ceased.  In 
1869,  when  there  were  as  yet  but  143  members, 
special  prayer  was  made  for  an  addition  that  year  of 
500  converts,  and  573  were  baptized;  and  in  some 
twelve  years  more  the  Church  numbered  2,000.  Now 
it  is  the  largest  in  the  world ! 

In  1872,  in  December,  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  appointed  a  day  for  intercession,  with  special 
reference  to  the  increase  of  missionary  force — and 
that  day  was  spent  in  prayer  offered  distinctly  and 
definitely  for  more  men.  It  was  immediately  fol¬ 
lowed  by  offers  of  service  beyond  any  other  period 
of  the  Society’s  history.  In  the  five  years  follow¬ 
ing  it  sent  out  112  men,  whereas,  in  the  preceding 
five,  it  had  sent  but  51. 

In  1880,  this  same  noble  society  called  for  very 
special  intercession  for  more  money — as  eight  years 
before,  for  more  men.  Within  a  few  months, 
^135,000  were  offered  to  wipe  off  all  deficit, 
and  ^150,000  more,  specially  contributed  for  exten¬ 
sion,  as  well  as  other  special  gifts  whereby  substan¬ 
tial  advance  was  made  upon  the  ordinary  income. 
Again,  in  1884,  men  were  sorely  needed,  and  it  was 


370 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


asked  of  God  that  the  very  flowers  of  society  might 
be  transplanted  to  heathen  climes.  A  day  was  ap¬ 
pointed  to  pray  for  this  result.  The  previous  evening 
Secretary  Wigram  was  summoned  to  Cambridge  to 
“  see  a  number  of  graduates  and  undergraduates  who 
desired  to  dedicate  themselves  to  the  Lord’s  work 
abroad.”  More  than  one  hundred  university  men 
met  him,  and  the  next  day  he  went  back  to  the 
prayer-meeting  to  illustrate  to  his  colleagues  the  old 
promise :  6  6  Before  they  call  I  will  answer ;  and 

while  they  are  yet  speaking  I  will  hear.” 

The  Two  Legions. 

Ancient  tradition  has  handed  down  two  most  inter¬ 
esting  relics  about  the  devout  soldiers  of  the  Roman 
army.  The  story  of  the  Theban  Legion,  in  the  third 
century,  may  be  coloured  by  fancy,  but  has,  doubtless, 
a  foundation  of  fact.  Twice,  it  is  said,  they  were 
decimated  by  the  Emperor  Maximian  because  they 
would  not  obey,  when  ordered  to  march  against  their 
fellow-Christians  in  Gaul.  But  no  threats  nor  ex¬ 
ecutions  could  turn  the  fixed  hearts  of  the  legion. 
The  survivors  still  held  their  ground  after  their 
fellows  had  been  slain;  and  Maurice,  their  leader, 
respectfully  but  firmly  declared  to  the  Emperor,  in 
behalf  of  his  fellow-soldiers,  that,  whilst  ready  to 
yield  implicit  obedience  in  all  matters  consistent 
with  conscience,  death  was  preferable  to  the  violation 
of  duty  to  God.  And  when  the  Emperor  ordered 
his  soldiers  to  destroy  the  whole  band,  they  quietly 
laid  down  their  arms  and  accepted  martyrdom. 

The  other  story  is  that  of  the  Thundering  Legion 
under  Marcus  Aurelius.  When  the  Roman  hosts 
were  surrounded  by  barbarian  hordes,  and  the  peril 
was  great,  these  Christian  soldiers,  mighty  in  prayer, 
knelt  on  the  very  battle-field  and  sought  from  God 
and  obtained  deliverance  by  His  hand  from  the 
dangers  that  threatened  the  forces  of  the  empire. 

Whether  there  ever  was  a  Theban  Legion  and  a 


ANSWERS  TO  ERA  YER. 


371 


Thundering  Legion  in  the  days  of  the  Silver  Eagle 
matters  little;  but  the  Missionary  Army  has  had 
both  from  the  beginning.  Men  and  women  who 
would  not  be  drawn  or  driven  from  their  duty  to 
Christ  and  lost  souls,  though  the  fever,  the  famine, 
the  sword  decimated  their  ranks,  have  dared  the 
prison  cell,  starvation,  persecution  and  death  itself 
rather  than  abandon  their  witness  to  Christ.  And 
the  strength  of  missions  has  ever  been  that  the 
Captain  of  our  salvation  has  always  had  His  Praying 
Legion;  who  in  the  crises  of  the  conflict,  took  no 
account  of  the  number  or  might  of  foes,  but  pre¬ 
vailed  with  God  in  prayer.  It  is  the  central  glory  of 
missionary  history  that  it  has  produced  more  intrepid 
and  self-sacrificing  soldiers  of  the  cross,  and  more 
great  intercessors  like  Moses,  Samuel,  Daniel  and 
Elijah,  than  any  other  form  even  of  Church  life. 
Surely  between  these  facts  there  must  be  some 
divine  link  of  connection.  A  work  that  develops 
such  courage  and  constancy,  on  the  one  side,  and 
such  faith  and  prayer,  on  the  other,  must,  in  this 
very  fact,  bear  the  peculiar  stamp  and  seal  of  the 
King  himself. 

Thus,  by  4 4  many  infallible  proofs,”  missionary 
history  vindicates  its  rightful  claim  as  a  continuation 
of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  the  signs  and  wonders 
God  has  wrought.  And  what  shall  I  more  say? 
for  the  time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  all  the  marvels 
of  Providence  and  Grace  which  make  the  whole 
growth  of  modern  missions  a  Burning  Bush  aflame 
with  the  glory  of  the  presence  of  God ! 

On  the  long  guns  of  the  African  Moors  these  words 
are  often  found  engraven:  44  For  the  Holy  War  if  God 
will.”  When  will  disciples  learn  that  they  are  God’s 
soldiers,  and  that  every  power  and  faculty  is  to  be 
devoted  as  a  weapon  to  His  holy  warfare?  What 
new  signs  and  wonders  would  be  wrought  if,  in  re¬ 
sponse  to  the  bugle  blast  of  our  great  Captain,  the 
whole  Church  would  march  to  the  battle-field!  All 


372 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


that  God  has  yet  shown  of  His  mighty  power  would 
be  but  a  small  part  of  His  ways.  Men  would  begin 
to  see  Omnipotence  baring  its  resistless  arm,  and 
the  thunder  of  His  power  would  shake  earth  and 
heaven ! 


\ 


Part  VI. 


THE  NEW  MOTIVES  AND  INCENTIVES 


I. 


THE  LOOK  FORWARD. 

It  was  a  saying  of  Immanuel  Kant  that  every  man 
should  propose  to  himself  three  questions:  What 
can  I  know  ?  What  ought  I  to  do  ?  and  for  what 
may  I  hope? 

Motive  is  that  which  moves,  or  produces  motion. 
All  action  is  the  result  of  incentives;  and  the  more 
numerous  and  powerful  the  inducements,  the  more 
prompt  and  energetic  the  activity.  Hope  is,  there¬ 
fore,  the  greatest  motor  of  human  life ;  it  is  the  very 
sculptor  of  character  and  conduct;  the  architect  of 
history  and  destiny.  Hope  is  so  connected  with  hap¬ 
piness  that  its  perfect  crown  is  heaven ;  and  Dante 
was  not  less  philosopher  than  poet  when  he  wrote 
over  the  gates  of  the  Inferno,  4  4  Abandon  hope,  all 
ye  who  enter  here !  ” 

The  matter  now  claiming  attention  belongs  at  the 
conclusion  of  our  studies,  for  it  is  the  apex  which, 
naturally  and  fitly,  forms  that  culmination. 

To  tarry,  at  any  point  of  progress,  simply  to  dwell 
on  past  successes,  is  the  forfeiture  of  further  advance. 
The  backward  glance  is  helpful  only  when  the  retro¬ 
spect  enables  us  to  apprehend  the  aspect  and  appre¬ 
ciate  the  prospect;  when  memory  inspires  and  ener¬ 
gizes  hope ;  when  the  review  acts  not  as  a  sedative 
and  a  narcotic,  but  as  a  tonic  and  a  stimulant. 

Motives  and  incentives  cannot  stimulate  to  action 
until  their  value  and  virtue  are  felt,  and  to  be  felt 
they  must  be  appreciated.  Their  weight  in  the  scale 
will  depend  upon  the  attractive  power  they  possess 
to  our  minds ;  for  the  scale  whose  beam  they  turn  is 
the  judgment.  God  will  guide  with  His  eye  those 
who  keep  their  eye  fixed  on  His;  but  the  Divine  Eye 
cannot  guide  without  this  answering  look.  Other- 

375 


376 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


wise  we  must  be  guided  by  sterner  restraints  and 
constraints,  like  the  beast  whose  mouth  is  held  in 
with  bit  and  bridle,  leather  reins  in  place  of  gentler 
glances. 

To  this  closing  part  of  our  great  theme  we  may 
well  approach  with  thoughtfulness,  for  all  new  prog¬ 
ress  in  missions  finds  here  the  hiding  of  its  power. 
If  the  new  century,  now  beginning,  is  to  write  new 
and  grander  chapters  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we 
must  feel  the  force  of  the  mighty  motives  which  God 
puts  before  us.  He  means  that  the  hundred  years 
ahead  shall  be  as  much  more  abundant  in  effort,  intel¬ 
ligent  in  zeal,  and  glorious  in  achievement,  as  the 
century  which  began  with  Carey’s  sermon  at  Not¬ 
tingham  surpassed  that  which  went  before  it.  And 
so  countless  are  the  new  motives  and  incentives  now 
yoked  to  missionary  effort,  that  if  they  move  and 
draw  us  as  they  should,  our  advance  will  be  not  by 
an  arithmetical  but  a  geometrical  ratio,  and  the 
world’s  evangelization  will  go  forward  not  by  slow 
steps  but  by  gigantic  strides. 


II. 


A  NEW  ORDER  OP  THINGS. 

First  of  all,  a  new  order  of  things  has  been  di¬ 
vinely  created  for  our  encouragement.  So  novel 
are  the  conditions  of  missionary  labour  that  nothing 
seems  old  and  unchanged  but  the  gospel  message 
and  the  converting  Spirit.  Instead  of  a  world  locked 
against  us,  with  walls  to  be  broken  down  and  gates 
to  be  forced,  an  open  highway  to  the  heart  of  Asia 
and  Africa;  in  most  parts  a  welcome;  in  almost  all, 
an  undisputed  entrance.  Instead  of  the  barriers  of 
a  century  ago, — obstacles  between  the  Church  and 
the  heathen  world,  which  hindered  approach  and 
access,  intercourse  and  impression ;  and  obstacles 
within  the  Church  itself,  which  hindered  action  and 
co-operation, — an  aroused  Church,  in  sympathy  with 
the  work  of  missions,  confronting  a  world-wide  field, 
everywhere  inviting  the  sower  with  his  seed,  and  in 
many  parts  presenting  a  harvest  calling  for  the 
reaper  with  his  sickle. 

It  has  been  reserved  for  the  nineteenth  century  to 
behold  the  whole  world  open  to  the  missionary.  God 
has  flung  wide  the  gates  of  India,  broken  down  the 
wall  of  China,  unsealed  the  ports  of  Japan;  Africa 
is  girdled  and  crossed,  Turkey  and  Siam,  Burma  and 
Corea,  invite  missionary  labour,  and  France  and 
Spain,  Italy  and  Mexico,  welcome  an  open  Bible  and 
a  simple  gospel.  These  long-locked  doors  God  has 
curiously  opened  with  the  keys  of  commerce  and 
common  schools,  the  printing-press  and  medical  sci¬ 
ence,  as  well  as  arms  and  diplomacy.  In  some 
cases,  still  more  strangely,  He  has  used  His  “  great 
army  ”  of  locusts,  caterpillars  and  cankerworms, 
famine  and  fever,  drought  and  flood,  to  force  en¬ 
trance  into  Satan’s  strongholds.  What  inspiration 

377 


378 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


to  holy  activity  and  zeal,  when  His  shining  Pillar 
moves  before  us  to  assure  of  victory  through  His 
presence  and  power!  Moreover,  our  work  may  now 
be  done,  in  almost  every  land,  with  comparative 
immunity  from  danger.  M.  Schoffler,  missionary  to 
Cochin  China,  was  publicly  executed  at  Sontay  by 
order  of  the  grand  mandarin,  for  his  preaching  of 
Christ,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  on  May  4th, 
1851.  ,  This  was  the  last  such  execution  in  the 
Flowery  Kingdom,  and  from  it  dates  the  new  era  in 
Chinese  evangelization.  Resistance  we  shall  proba¬ 
bly  continue  to  meet  everywhere,  but  the  more  vio¬ 
lent,  the  less  likely  to  be  prolonged. 

There  are  three  stages  of  missionary  work :  First, 
the  pioneer  period,  when  as  yet  the  missionary  is 
met  with  such  distrust  and  suspicion,  that  little 
headway  can  be  made ;  secondly,  the  period  of 
action ,  when  early  obstacles  have  been  removed  or 
surmounted,  opposition  is  overcome,  and  the  cross  is 
actually  planted,  and  converts  are  multiplying;  and, 
last  of  all,  the  period  of  establishment ?  when  native 
churches  become  self-governing,  self-supporting, 
self-propagating.  During  the  first  stage  it  is  vain 
to  send  many  missionaries  to  the  field;  during  the 
third,  they  may  be  withdrawn  as  no  longer  needed ; 
but  during  the  second  they  should  be  especially  mul¬ 
tiplied;  the  opportunity  is  grand  but  brief,  and 
must  be  promptly  improved;  and,  in  most  fields,  we 
have  actually  reached  this  middle  period,  when  the 
need  of  men  and  money  is  most  imperative. 

Is  it  no  significant  sign  of  the  will  of  God  that  just 
at  this  time  of  peculiar  crisis,  such  increased  capacity 
should  exist  in  the  Church  to  meet  this  greatly  in¬ 
creased  demand?  Fewness  of  numbers  and  small¬ 
ness  of  means  the  Christian  Church  can  no  longer 
offer  as  an  excuse  or  extenuation  for  inaction. 

To-day  the  evangelical  Protestant  Churches  have 
a  membership  of  nearly  forty  millions  of  communi¬ 
cants.  One  from  every  hundred,  which  is  a  smaller 


A  NEW  ORDER  OF  THINGS. 


379 


proportion  than  the  small  community  at  Herrnhut 
actually  is  sending  out — would  give  us  a  missionary 
army  of  about  four  hundred  thousand — fifty  times 
the  present  available  force.  As  to  money,  wealth  is 
in  the  hands  of  this  vast  membership  to  an  extent 
perilous  to  piety.  From  careful  estimates,  the  aver¬ 
age  income  of  Protestant  Church  members,  the 
world  over,  is  reckoned  at  not  less  than  one  hundred 
pounds  annually — a  low  estimate,  considering  what 
hoards  of  treasure  are  in  the  coffers  of  so  many;  and 
yet  this  yields  a  sum  total  of  four  thousand  millions 
of  pounds  sterling,  or  about  twenty  thousand  mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars — a  sum  too  immense  for  us  to  con¬ 
ceive. 

If  of  this,  a  tithe  were  given,  there  would  pour 
annually  into  missionary  treasuries  four  hundred 
millions  of  pounds,  or  two  hundred  times  the 
amount  now  given  to  missions.  And  imagination 
fails  to  paint  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  mission  con¬ 
quests,  with  a  consecrated  Church  sending  nearly 
half  a  million  men  and  women  into  the  world  field, 
and  furnishing  an  annual  income  approaching  five 
hundred  million  pounds  to  sustain  them  in  the  com¬ 
bat  with  idolatry  and  iniquity ! 

The  gifts  that  idol  worshippers  lavish  upon  the 
fanes  and  shrines  of  false  gods,  put  to  shame  the  wor¬ 
shippers  of  Jehovah.  The  ‘ 4 Peacock  Throne”  of 
the  Great  Mogul,  in  the  Hall  of  Audience  at  Delhi, 
cost  more  than  two  and  a  half  millions  of  pounds 
sterling — or  twice  as  much  as  missions  in  India 
since  Carey  went  to  Calcutta !  And  the  cost  of  the 
new  twin  temples  of  Hon-gwan-ji,  in  the  ancient  city 
of  Kyoto,  Japan,  will  be  as  much  more.  The 
“  Eastern”  and  “  Western”  structures  belonging  to 
this  Japanese  fane  are  superb  in  expenditure.  The 
latest  built  of  them  is  erected  entirely  from  free¬ 
will  offerings  of  Buddhists;  precious  woods,  metals, 
money  and  jewels  were  given  without  stint;  and  the 
offerings  of  human  hair  remind  us  of  the  maidens 


380 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


of  Carthage  and  Tyre,  who  furnished  from  their 
ringlets  the  bowstrings  and  cordage  for  archers  and 
war-ships.  On  one  of  the  platforms  could  have  been 
seen  twenty-four  heavy  coils  of  rope,  from  three  to 
four  inches  diameter,  attached  to  which  was  the 
inscription : 

“  Since  the  thirteenth  year  of  Meiji  (1880),  when 
the  rebuilding  of  the  two  halls  of  the  Eastern  Hon- 
gwan-ji  was  begun,  the  faithful  laymen  and  lay- 
women  of  every  place  have  been  unanimous  in  pre¬ 
senting  to  the  principal  temple,  Hon-gwan-ji,  strong 
ropes  wrought  of  their  own  hair,  to  be  used  in  the 
work  of  re-erection.  The  number  of  these  ropes 
reached  fifty-three,  twenty-nine  of  which  became 
worthless  from  use.  The  total  length  of  the  remain¬ 
ing  twenty-four  is  4,528  feet,  and  the  total  weight, 
11,567  pounds!” 

Beside  these  ropes  lay  several  large  coils  of  hair — 
several  of  them  gray,  the  gifts  of  the  aged — which 
came  too  late  for  use,  but  not  too  late  to  express 
devotion. 

One  feature  of  this  new  order  of  things  is  found  in 
the  changed  relations  of  so-called  Christian  nations 
to  the  rest  of  the  world .  God  has  not  only  opened 
doors  of  entrance  to  all  other  peoples,  and  supplied 
avenues  and  facilities  for  this  world-wide  occupation ; 
but  He  has  given  to  the  great  Protestant  peoples  of 
the  earth  the  sceptre  of  the  race .  To  Great  Britain, 
the  United  States,  Prussia,  belongs  the  undoubted 
supremacy  of  the  world;  for,  to  the  nations  most 
deserving  to  be  called  enlightened  Christian,  the  rest 
of  mankind  tacitly  yield  homage.  Mohammedanism 
most  stubbornly  resists  the  approach  of  the  gospel ; 
yet  Dr.  Schreiber,  of  Barmen,  says,  of  175,000,000 
Moslems,  that  100,000,000  are  already  in  subjection 
to  Christian  powers,  and  that  before  long  the  other 
75,000,000  will  be.  The  political  downfall  of  the 
False  Prophet  is  thus  already  an  accomplished  fact. 

The  great  prominence  of  missionary  literature  sup- 


A  NEW  ORDER  OF  THINGS. 


381 


plies  another  new  incentive.  When  Christ  gave  his 
last  command,  there  was  not  one  Christian  book — 
even  the  first  gospel  narrative  was  not  yet  written. 
The  Church,  for  nearly  a  century,  had  no  literature, 
and  had  to  wait  fifteen  centuries  for  a  printing-press; 
and  for  three  centuries  more,  for  any  missionary 
literature  outside  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Some 
who  are  yet  living  can  remember  when  the  “  Evan¬ 
gelical  Magazine  ”  promised  its  readers  a  page  of 
missionary  intelligence,  “as  soon  as  enough  matter 
could  be  found  to  fill  a  page.”  To-day  missionary 
hymns  are  in  our  hymn-books,  missionary  magazines 
and  reviews  throng  our  mails;  and  about  one-seventh 
of  our  religious  publications  deal  either  directly  or 
indirectly  with  missions;  and  even  our  secular  dailies 
devote  columns  and  pages  to  the  subject!  We  have 
chairs  of  missions  in  our  colleges  and  theological 
schools,  and  missionary  lectureships.  There  are 
some  three  hundred  societies  organized  for  promot¬ 
ing  missions,  and  as  many  translations  of  the  Bible 
into  the  languages  and  dialects  of  the  peoples  whom 
we  need  to  reach  with  the  message. 


III. 

MEDICAL  MISSIONS. 

What  new  conditions  of  success  are  found  in  the 
recent  development  of  medical  missions!  In  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  two  great  aids  were  granted 
to  the  witnessing  Church :  first,  the  gift  of  tongues , 
which  fitted  the  heralds  to  reach  strange  peoples 
without  the  slow  mastery  of  a  foreign  speech ;  and, 
secondly,  the  gift  of  healing ,  which  made  even  op¬ 
ponents  favourably  disposed  toward  the  herald  who 
first  brought  such  help  to  the  body.  In  a  natural 
way,  the  lack  of  these  supernatural  gifts  is  now  com¬ 
pensated.  Christian  scholarship  has  so  far  outrun 
the  best  learning  and  training  of  those  earlier  days, 
that  grammars  and  dictionaries  of  all  the  leading 
languages  and  dialects  can  be  supplied  to  the  stu¬ 
dent;  Morrison  could  study  Chinese  in  London  and 
Schwartz  could  learn  Tamil  at  Halle,  and  Keith 
Falconer,  Arabic  at  Cambridge — before  China,  India 
or  Arabia  were  reached. 

Within  the  hundred  years  past,  at  least  one  hun¬ 
dred  tongues  that  had  before  no  literature,  not  even 
an  alphabet,  have  by  missionaries  been  reduced  to 
writing.  And  the  Word  of  God,  in  over  three  hun¬ 
dred  dialects,  now,  like  a  perpetual  Pentecost,  speaks 
to  the  nations,  so  that  each  man  may  in  his  own 
tongue  read  the  wonderful  works  of  God.  This  re¬ 
duction  of  the  world’s  languages  to  a  written  form, 
to  a  scientific  form,  is  God’s  modern  gift  of 
tongues. 

And  the  medical  mission,  now  finding  entrance 
into  all  fields,  and  itself  having,  in  many,  as  at  Corea, 
held  the  key  that  unlocked  the  doors  of  entrance — 
what  is  this  but  God’s  modern  gift  of  healing,  which 
is  to  go  before  the  gospel  to  dispose  men  by  the  help 

382 


MEDICAL  MISSIONS . 


383 


given  their  bodies  to  hear  the  words  which,  to  all  the 
woes  and  wants  of  sinsick  souls,  bring  health ! 

Medical  missions  have  great  capacity  of  service, 
both  as  a  means,  and  as  an  end.  As  an  end  they  dis¬ 
place  existing  systems  of  so-called  medicine,  posi¬ 
tively  useless  to  reach  disease,  and  positively  harmful 
and  cruel  to  patients.  How  Christian  medical  science 
relieves  bodily  suffering  is  shown  by  such  work  as 
that  of  Dr.  Grant  in  Persia,  Dr.  Kerr  in  China,  Dr. 
Post  in  Syria,  and  scores  of  other  most  successful 
medical  missionaries.  No  more  wonderful  story  has 
been  written  in  modern  days  than  that  of  the  St. 
John’s  Hospital  at  Beirut,  as  given  to  the  World’s 
Conference  in  1888.  But  medical  missions  are  also  a 
means  to  a  higher  end.  They  are  destructive  of 
superstition  and  idolatry,  for  false  faiths  are  so  bound 
up  with  false  science,  that  to  attack  one  is  to  attack 
the  other,  and  they  must  go  down  together.  The 
ignorant  devotee  who  finds  that  his  medicine  men 
and  conjurors  have  only  been  adding  to  his  pains  and 
sufferings,  and  that  the  Christian  doctor  both  brings 
help  and  cure,  naturally  feels  drawn  to  the  new  faith 
he  teaches;  and  so  medical  missions  are  not  only 
destructive  of  superstition  and  false  religion,  but  they 
are  constructive  of  a  new  faith  and  life.  God  is  now 
singularly  using  this  new  agency  both  as  a  handmaid 
to  the  gospel  and  as  a  power  to  unbar  long  shut  gates 
to  the  ambassador  of  Christ.  The  healing  art  is 
still  the  preparation  for  conversion  to  the  great 
Healer. 

The  sudden  emphasis,  so  singularly  laid  on  medi¬ 
cal  missions  within  the  last  sixty  years,  has  solved 
one  of  the  greatest  problems  of  missions.  Of  course 
there  has  never  been  a  period  in  which  preaching  of 
the  gospel  has  not  been  closely  allied  to  the  healing 
art.  Mackay,  of  Uganda,  was  right  when  he  said, 
that  “  All  genuine  missionary  work  must  be  in  the 
highest  sense  a  healing  work.”  Body,  soul  and  spirit 
have  all  been  poisoned  and  diseased  by  sin,  and 


384 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


redemption  must  bring  salvation  to  the  whole  man. 
We  cannot  sever  sin  from  sickness,  and  we  cannot 
but  feel  that  there  is  more  than  a  link  of  language 
between  holiness  and  wholeness,  or  health.  Christ 
went  about  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  and 
healing  all  manner  of  disease ;  and  in  commissioning 
the  seventy  and  the  twelve,  healing  the  sick  was  con¬ 
joined  with  saving  souls. 

Yet  as  a  feature  of  missions ,  the  medical  mission  is 
just  sixty  years  old.  The  first  regularly  trained  and 
designated  medical  missionary  was  Dr.  Peter  Parker, 
who,  in  1834,  went  to  Canton,  under  commission  of 
the  American  Board ;  followed  shortly  after  by  Ben¬ 
jamin  Hobson,  sent  out  by  the  London  Society  to 
Macao. 

Dr.  Christlieb  has  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
it  was  an  English  physician,  Gabriel  Boughton, 
M.D.,  who  really  laid  in  the  East  the  foundations  of 
British  civilization  and  dominion  nearly  260  years 
ago.  In  1636,  a  princess  of  the  great  Mogul’s  court 
was  badly  burned,  and  he  was  the  means  of  her  cure. 
Whereupon,  in  his  magnanimity  declining  all  personal 
compensation,  he  asked  as  his  reward  only  that  his 
countrymen  might  have  leave  to  trade  with  the  great 
Indian  Empire.  And  so  the  healing  art  spoke  the 
magic  word  which  caused  the  iron  doors  to  swing 
open.  Was  not  Dr.  Otis  R.  Bacheler,  sent  out  to 
Orissa  by  the  Free  Baptists,  also  one  of  the  first  mis¬ 
sionary  physicians  ? 

The  Medical  Missionary  Society  of  Edinburgh 
multiplied  its  income  more  than  fourfold  in  the 
ten  years  from  1871  to  1881.  Before  1861,  the 
number  of  missionary  physicians  in  all  heathen 
lands  did  not  exceed  twenty;  and  ten  years  later, 
not  over  double  that  number.  Seven  years  after, 
the  number  closely  approached  one  hundred;  and 
in  another  seven  years,  there  were  nearly  two 
hundred  regularly  qualified  medical  missionaries; 
by  this  time,  ten  years  later,  that  number  has  again 


MEDICAL  MISSIONS. 


385 


about  doubled.  And  yet,  how  inadequate  !  New 
York  City  alone  has  3,000  doctors,  or  one  to  about 
five  hundred  people;  the  unevangelized  world  has 
about  one  to  every  three  millions!* 


*  It  may  be  well,  in  order  to  make  these  statements  and  statistics,  as  far  as 
practicable,  complete  up  to  date,  to  add,  that  the  British  missionary  societies, 
in  1893,  reported  139  fully  qualified  physicians  engaged  in  mission  work,  of 
whom  13  were  women.  I'll e  Medical  Missionary  Record  of  New  York,  after 
gathering  with  great  care  a  list  of  all  medical  missionaries  in  the  world,  gave 
as  the  facts  in  1886  and  1892,  the  following:  In  1886  a  total  of  291,  in  1892  a 
total  of  365,  in  the  entire  world  field.  Up  to  1893  there  were  359  fully  quali¬ 
fied  medical  missionaries,  of  whom  74  were  women. 

The  following  note  is  added  for  the  new  edition  of  this  book  in  i8q8  : 

In  the  Medical  Missionary  Record  of  April,  1897,  the  following  summary  is 
given:  Total,  487,  of  whom  371  are  men  and  116  women,  and  distributed  as 
follows  : 


China .  124 

India . ; . 

Africa . 

Syria  and  Turkey . 

Persia  . . 

Korea . 

Japan  . 

United  States . 

Siam . 

Great  Britain . 

Burma . 

Mexico . 

Pacific  Isles . 

Madagascar . 

Egypt . 

Ceylon . 

Canada . 

Assam . 

Brazil . 

Malaysia . . 

Afghanistan . . 

Arabia . 

Chili . 

Java . 

New  Guinea . 

Total .  371 


1897 — five  years — the  increase  has  been  122,  or  over  twenty-four  each  year. 
This  is  a  very  remarkable  array  of  figures  and  facts. 


Men. 

Wojtien. 

Total. 

124 

44 

168 

64 

4i 

io5 

40 

04 

44 

32 

02 

34 

11 

04 

15 

12 

03 

*5 

08 

06 

J4 

11 

02 

*3 

12 

•  • 

12 

11 

•  • 

11 

07 

04 

11 

04 

02 

06 

05 

05 

05 

05 

04 

04 

01 

04 

05 

03 

03 

03 

03 

03 

03 

03 

03 

02 

02 

02 

02 

01 

01 

02 

02 

01 

01 

37i 

116 

487 

se  was  from  40 

to  291,  an 

y-six  years.  From  1886  to 

each 

year.  From  1892  to 

IV. 


THE  NEW  ACTIVITY  OF  WOMAN. 

Woman’s  present  prominence  in  Christian  work 
provides  a  new  incentive  of  immense  value  and 
power.  The  progress  of  Christianity  has  made  in 
woman’s  estate  a  complete  inversion.  Once,  by  a 
strange  perversion  of  God’s  creative  word,  she  was 
accounted  a  helpmeet  for  man — not  his  correspond¬ 
ent  or  counterparty  as  the  original  implies,  but  his  sub¬ 
ordinate  and  servant,  or,  at  best,  his  helper — that  is, 
man,  the  superior  and  sovereign;  woman,  the  subject 
and  servant.  And  so,  even  in  the  Jewish  body  of 
believers,  woman  scarcely  ever  comes  to  the  front. 
Miriam,  Deborah,  Anna  the  prophetess,  are  the  rare 
exceptions  in  Hebrew  history,  in  which  woman  is 
submerged  and  out  of  sight.  With  a  curious  signifi¬ 
cance  Paul  writes:  “  Help  those  women  which 
laboured  with  me  in  the  gospel,”  as  though  they  were 
now  leaders  in  holy  service,  and  men  must  come  to 
their  help.  Through  Christ  and  His  gospel  she  who 
was  first  in  transgression,  is  becoming  first  in  holy 
consecration  and  missionary  devotion;  in  the  family, 
the  radiant  centre  of  attraction;  in  the  Church,  the 
disseminator  of  missionary  intelligence,  the  kindler 
of  enthusiasm,  the  organizer  of  systematic  benevo¬ 
lence.  Woman  goes  abroad  as  teacher,  nurse  and 
medical  missionary,  and  in  endurance  and  endeavour 
rivals  the  most  patient  and  valiant ;  or,  as  wife  and 
mother,  shows  what  Christ  makes  of  her  sex;  and 
not  only  joins  her  husband  in  work,  but  sometimes 
,  equals  and  even  outdoes  him  in  service.  One-third 
,  of  the  unevangelized  can  best  be  reached  by  woman, 

•  and  a  large  part  of  them  can  be  reached  by  her  only, 
as  they  are  inaccessible  to  man. 

Medical  missions  afford  a  new  field  for  the  sister- 

386 


THE  NEW  ACTIVITY  OE  WOMAN. 


387 


hood  of  Christ.  From  the  reach  of  this  noble  auxili¬ 
ary  to  missions,  the  women  of  the  Orient,  and  especi¬ 
ally  of  India,  were  long  shut  out  by  the  rigid  laws  of 
the  zenana,  the  seraglio  and  the  harem.  Even 
heathen  doctors  had  to  them  no  access.  In  Syria  a 
physician  was  called  to  prescribe  for  a  favourite  wife 
of  a  dignitary,  but  was  not  allowed  even  to  see  her 
tongue  or  feel  her  pulse ;  and  when  he  insisted  that 
no  medical  aid  could  be  given  without  such  examina¬ 
tion,  a  female  slave  was  made  to  thrust  out  her  tongue 
and  reach  out  her  hand  through  a  rent  in  the  curtain, 
that  he  might  examine  his  patient  by  proxy.  And 
so,  as  late  as  1878,  Mrs.  Weitbrecht  wrote:  “  All 
Hindu  women  are,  in  time  of  sickness,  utterly  neg¬ 
lected.  Prejudice  and  usage  banish  medical  help.” 
And  hence,  fever,  ophthalmia  and  other  contagious 
ills  bred  their  awful  progeny  unchecked  among 
women  and  children. 

But  now,  what  a  change !  All  India  clamours  for 
capable  women  who  are  trained  nurses  and  qualified 
physicians.  The  Presbyterian  Female  Hospital  at 
Lucknow,  opened  ten  or  eleven  years  since,  had 
thirteen  patients  the  first  year;  but  three  years  later, 
212,  beside  2,712  outside  patients  and  6,930  distribu¬ 
tions  of  medicine.  The  movement  has  ceased  to  be 
provincial  and  become  national;  the  work  at  Luck¬ 
now  and  Lodiana,  Travancore  and  Amritstar,  is  ex¬ 
tending  over  the  great  empire. 

Five  years  ago,  the  medical  missions  of  China 
were  scarcely  less  numerous  than  in  India,  extend¬ 
ing  from  Hong  Kong  and  Canton  to  Peking,  and 
even  into  Manchuria  and  Tartary  and  Formosa. 
The  whole  force  then  at  work,  male  and  female,  was 
upwards  of  eighty.  The  hospital  at  Swatow,  opened 
by  Dr.  Gauld  in  1863,  had  in  1888  two  hundred  in¬ 
mates,  treating  six  thousand  patients  a  year. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that  the  law  of  sex  runs 
through  all  Christian  work.  The  feminine  element 
is  needed  as  well  as  the  masculine.  Man  may  be 


388 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


aggressive,  bold,  strong,  fitted  to  pioneer,  organize, 
administer;  but  woman  is  patient,  impressive,  ten¬ 
der,  sympathetic,  fitted  to  win,  to  soothe,  to  com¬ 
fort,  to  minister.  Both  together  bring  to  the  work 
the  complete  furnishing  that  leaves  no  element  of 
adaptation  lacking.  And  hence,  when  less  than  fifty 
years  ago  women  began  to  organize  work  among  them¬ 
selves,  gather  money,  scatter  information,  send  out 
women  and  undertake  their  support,  qualify  for 
medical  missionaries,  and  educate  their  own  sex  for 
intelligent  co-operation  in  securing  the  spread  of  the 
good  news,  the  effect  was  felt  from  the  centre  to  the 
circumference  of  the  whole  sphere  of  Christian 
service.  And  the  end  is  not  yet ! 


V. 


NEW  LESSONS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 

The  modern  age  of  missions  furnishes  new  incen¬ 
tives  in  the  exhibition  of  the  relations  of  Christian 
missions  to  Christian  life ,  which  could  be  understood 
only  when  experience  had  both  proved  and  illus¬ 
trated  those  relations. 

Long  since,  Solomon  wrote:  “  There  is  that  scat¬ 
tered  and  yet  increased;  and  there  is  that  with- 
holdeth  more  than  is  meet  but  it  tended  to  poverty.” 
That  is  one  of  the  great  truths  of  the  wisdom  from 
above,  but  to  the  worldly  man  it  is  folly.  No  para¬ 
dox  Christ  uttered  is  more  inexplicable  to  the  nat¬ 
ural  and  carnal  heart  than  this:  “  He  that  saved  his 
life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth  his  life  for  My 
sake  and  the  gospel’s,  the  same  shall  save  it.”  To 
increase  by  scattering,  and  grow  poor  by  withhold¬ 
ing;  to  save  by  losing  and  lose  by  saving — is  the  cli¬ 
max  of  absurdity,  yet  it  is  the  first  principle  of 
divine  philosophy.  Selfishness  withholds  and  gets 
poorer  by  the  attempt  to  grow  richer.  Benevolence 
scatters,  and  in  imparting  increases — in  giving,  gets. 

Missions  sustain  Christian  life — a  relation  both  of 
sustenance  and  satisfaction — they  supply  the  one 
most  complete  avenue  for  service  and  for  satisfying 
joy.  There  are  returns,  though  they  are  not  carnal 
nor  material — the  channel  which  conveys  our  gifts 
outward,  conveys  joy  inward — like  the  mutual  action 
of  arteries  and  veins.  Worldly  pleasures  are  sweet 
for  a  season,  but  they  lose  relish  and  give  place  to 
bitter  dregs  at  the  bottom  of  the  chalice.  The 
worldly  mind  is  a  mirror  turned  downward,  reflect¬ 
ing  only  what  is  earthly,  sensual  and  sensuous, 
material  and  temporal.  The  spiritual  mind  is  the 
mirror  turned  upward,  reflecting  heaven  with  its 

S89 


390 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


stars.  Worldly  pleasures  lose  charm;  so  shallow 
that  you  can  look  through  them  and  see  the  mire  at 
the  bottom  of  the  stream  from  which  you  drink ;  so 
hollow  that,  as  you  grasp  them,  you  have  a  sense  of 
their  unsubstantial,  unsatisfying  character.  Adolph 
Monod,  dying  at  fifty-four  years  of  age,  in  1891,  left 
in  a  brief,  dying  sentence,  the  sum  of  his  legacy  to 
his  survivors:  “  All  in  Christ,  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
for  the  glory  of  God!  All  else  is  nothing.” 

The  Church  has  found  missions  needful  for  its 
own  full  arousing  to  activity ,  for  such  work  is  the 
preservative  of  life.  Nearly  one- third  of  our  exist¬ 
ence  is  passed  in  that  sleep  which  for  all  active  pur¬ 
poses  of  life  is  a  blank,  but  which  helps  to  replenish 
waste  and  supply  energy  to  exhausted  brain  and 
brawn.  But  while  in  the  physical  sphere  there  is  no 
antagonism  between  sleep  and  life,  in  spiritual  things 
sleep  is  death.  All  activities  of  the  vital  spirit  can¬ 
not  cease  without  cessation  of  life  itself,  for  mo¬ 
tionless  members  become  atrophized ;  as  Dr.  Solander 
said  of  travellers  amid  the  snows  of  a  Norwegian 
winter:  “  Whoever  sits  down  there  will  sleep,  and 
whoever  sleeps  will  wake  no  more.”  The  sleep  of 
the  soul  arrests  spiritual  circulation  and  respiration. 
Piety  cannot  survive  absolute  inaction. 

When  missionary  activities  cease,  ritualism  and 
formalism  intone  their  monotonous  chant,  and  by 
their  mechanical  uniformity  induce  hopeless  sluggish¬ 
ness  and  spiritual  death.  There  is  but  one  source  of 
safety,  even  to  disciples.  Apathy  brings  apostasy, 
lethargy  palsies  and  kills.  To  have  a  healthy,  alive 
Church,  all  must  be  at  work  for  souls;  each,  like 
Arnold  of  Rugby,  studious  to  learn  the  evils  and 
needs  of  his  own  generation  and  serve  the  whole  race. 

Missions  are  thus  inseparable  from  the  salvation  of 
the  Church .  The  Hawaiian  Islands  undertook  the 
mission  to  Micronesia  to  arrest  decline  and  decay 
among  native  converts.  The  sagacious  pioneers  in 
Tahiti  and  the  Fiji  group  encouraged  the  newly- 


NE  W  LESSONS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 


391 


organized  churches  to  send  labourers  at  once  to  other 
clusters  about  them  as  a  means  of  their  own  de¬ 
velopment.  And  it  has  always  been  so.  Not  one 
of  the  ancient  Churches  survives  in  purity  that  was 
not  a  missionary  Church ;  all  the  rest  are  to-day  dead. 
And  if,  at  this  time,  the  forty  millions  of  Protestants 
should  give  up  all  missions  and  concentrate  all  effort 
on  denominational  extension  and  self-preservation, 
it  would  be  the  surest,  quickest  way  to  promote 
decay.  Ruin  would  result,  perhaps  so  rapid,  that 
in  a  century  we  should  have  relapsed  again  into  the 
Dark  Ages. 

Daniel  Webster,  some  years  before  his  death, 
made  an  extensive  tour  to  the  extreme  west  of  the 
United  States,  and  on  his  return,  expressed  in  four 
words  his  impression  of  the  country’s  peril:  “  Abun¬ 
dance,  Luxury,  Decline,  Desolation.”  A  sagacious 
seer  and  prophet  was  this,  our  American  Burke.  He 
saw  that  this  boasted  abundance  and  luxury  were  the 
summit  of  a  hill  beyond  which  the  descent  was 
awfully  rapid  and  dangerous.  Numerical  strength 
may  be  weakness,  and  wealth,  impoverishment. 
What  saved  the  Church  of  the  seventeenth  and  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  from  the  apos¬ 
tasy  that  threatened,  was  the  birth-hour  of  missions 
which  gave  the  Church  a  new  remedy  for  its  ills. 
And  the  only  thing  that  can  save  the  Church  of  the 
nineteenth  century  from  another  apostasy,  will  be  a 
new  consecration  to  the  work  of  a  world’s  evangeliza¬ 
tion,  proportioned  to  our  new  measure  of  knowledge 
and  opportunity.  For  be  it  remembered  that  fidelity 
has  no  fixed  standard;  it  varies  because  light  has  its 
degrees  of  clearness,  and  ability  has  its  varying 
measure.  What  would  have  been  faithfulness  in 
Carey’s  day  is  neglect  now;  what  would  have  been 
zeal  then  is  indifference  now.  As  the  world  opens 
to  us;  as  our  numbers  and  resources  multiply;  as 
our  knowledge  of  human  need  increases;  as  our 
facilities  are  indefinitely  enlarged,  so  our  readiness, 


392 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


promptness,  fulness  of  devotion,  must  keep  pace; 
otherwise  we  are  unfaithful.  If,  when  I  have  wealth, 
I  give  no  larger  a  proportion  than  when  poor,  I  really 
keep  a  far  larger  proportion  for  my  indulgence ;  if, 
when  I  have  far  more  incentives  to  duty,  I  am  no 
more  active,  I  am  the  more  unimpressible  and  irre¬ 
sponsive.  So,  of  this  age  to  which  so  much  more  is 
given,  God  will  require  the  more. 

Frenchmen  have  accomplished  the  feat  of  actually 
plating  a  dead  child  with  a  metallic  shell.  The 
corpse  is  prepared  by  a  bath  of  nitrate  of  silver  and 
the  vapour  of  phosphorus,  and  then  electricity  is 
employed  to  lay  on  the  thin  shell  of  copper,  alumin¬ 
ium  or  gold.  The  tendency  of  our  day  is  to  a 
plated  Church — to  leave  the  corruption  of  this  world, 
and  the  coldness  and  lifelessness  of  a  secular  selfish¬ 
ness,  within,  and  gild  over  with  fashionable  formal¬ 
ism  and  polite  culture.  To  leave  this  tendency  un¬ 
changed  is  to  have,  in  the  end,  a  corpse  with  a  gold 
shell ! 

There  certainly  is  a  crisis  in  Church  life  just  now 
which  gives  to  watchful  saints  no  little  alarm.  It  is 
an  age  not  only  of  doubt,  but  of  declared  doubt ; 
an  age  of  scholarly  inquiry,  but  audacious  rational¬ 
ism  and  impudent  irreverence;  an  age  of  unrest, 
insatiate  avarice  and  reckless  ambition;  an  age  of 
fashionable  indulgence  and  unrestrained  selfishness; 
an  age  of  formality  in  religion  and  prayerlessness ;  an 
age  of  religious  extension,  rather  than  of  holy  inten¬ 
sity;  an  age  of  secular  churches  and  wide-spread 
neglect  of  the  real  sanctities  of  holy  living. 

Reference  has  been  made  already  to  John  Owen’s 
“  Pneumatologia,”  and  to  what  he  says  of  every  age, 
“that  it  has  its  own  test  of  fidelity  or  infidelity.” 
Before  Christ’s  advent,  the  great  testing  truth  was 
the  oneness  of  God’s  nature  and  His  monarchy  over 
all.  At  His  advent,  whether  a  Church  was  orthodox 
hung  on  this — whether  it  would  receive  or  reject  the 
Son  of  God  as  divine,  incarnate,  sacrificed,  glorified 


NE  W  LESSONS  FROM  EXPERIENCE. 


393 


according  to  prophecy  and  promise.  But,  now  that 
the  Church  has  been  outgathered,  the  test  is,  “how 
the  Church  receives  the  Holy  Spirit /”  so  that  a  body 
of  disciples  who  hold  tenaciously  to  the  unity  of  God 
and  the  trinity  of  the  persons  of  the  Godhead,  and 
accept  Jesus  Christ  as  Son  of  God,  Saviour  and  Lord, 
may  yet  in  God’s  eyes  be  apostate,  because  practically 
rejecting  the  Holy  Spirit  in  His  divine  offices! 

The  remark  is  alarmingly  true,  and  there  is  no 
sign  of  such  apostasy  more  convincing  than  the  ab¬ 
sence  of  that  missionary  spirit  which  is  the  practical 
evidence  and  expression  of  the  abiding  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ.  If  at  once  the  whole  Church  of  God  should 
enter  upon  the  work  of  a  world’s  evangelization  with 
a  zeal  proportioned  to  the  present  claims  of  duty  and 
opportunity,  there  would  be  a  sudden  cessation  of 
the  widespread  doubt,  due  to  the  leaven  of  German 
rationalism,  under  polite  names  of  Biblical  criticism ; 
we  should  find  it  once  more  true,  as  Shaftesbury 
said,  that  the  antidote  to  all  this  scepticism  and 
uncertainty  is  to  be  constantly  and  wholly  absorbed 
in  work  for  soul-saving.  All  minor  questions  are 
forgotten  when  major  issues  come  to  the  front;  as 
two  animals  that  have  been  fighting  will  suddenly 
come  into  friendly  terms,  and  stand  side  by  side  when 
forced  to  face  and  fight  a  lion.  Even  the  Church 
is  coming  to  embrace  a  great  multitude  who  “  vigor¬ 
ously  believing  nothing,  practice  vigorously  what  they 
believe;”  and  it  will  be  worse  unless  we  redouble  our 
fidelity  to  missions. 

One  of  the  highest  incentives  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  missions  thus  develop  the  life  that  makes  them 
possible.  There  never  was  a  true  mission  born  un¬ 
less  there  was  vitality  enough  to  give  it  birth;  but 
it  is  equally  true  that  such  child-bearing  saves  the 
very  mother  herself.  The  sacrifice  is  salvation.  That 
word,  Salvation,  has  a  grander,  fuller  meaning  than 
we  often  think.  Justification  may  come  to  him  who 
believes  with  the  heart ;  but  there  is  a  full  salvation 


394 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLE'S. 


only  to  him  who  confesses  with  the  mouth,  and 
witnesses  to  the  world.  To  escape  the  penalty  of 
sin  is  but  the  first  step  in  salvation;  to  escape  the 
power  of  sin,  and  the  dominion  of  evil  is  the  next 
step,  sanctification.  But  he  who  advances  not 
further  and  learns  that  service  which  delivers  from 
the  more  subtle  dominion  of  self,  knows  not  the 
fullest  meaning  of  salvation. 

It  ought  to  be  motive  enough  that  the  Church’s 
mission  is  to  save  the  lost,  and  not  simply  to  care 
for  the  saved.  Solomon  says,  God  hath  set  the 
world  in  man’s  heart — but  the  Hebrew  term  is  olam 
— indefinite  duration.  There  is  a  latent  instinct  of 
eternity  in  the  human  soul.  Man  knows  that  dura¬ 
tion  was  before  him  and  will  be  after  him ;  and  the 
believer  is  one  in  whose  heart  this  latent  instinct  has 
been  aroused  to  activity :  his  mission  is  to  go  forth 
and  awaken  that  instinct  in  others  •  and  that  is  soul¬ 
saving  ! 


i 


VI. 


NEW  INCENTIVES  TO  GIVING. 

The  modern  notions  of  giving  are  not  only  far 
below  the  Scripture  level  ;<$they  contradict  Bible 
standards.  An  article  in  the  “  Nineteenth  Century  ” 
told  men  how  to  live  on  seven  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  a  year:  allowance  was  made  for  all  needful 
outlay  on  food  and  clothing,  house  rent  and  house 
service;  and  a  generous  provision  for  culture  and 
amusements.  But  not  one  penny  was  set  aside  for 
charity,  which  was  not  reckoned  among  necessities 
or  even  luxuries.  An  advertisement  appears,  offer¬ 
ing  a  very  large  reward  for  a  poodle,  whose  diamond- 
set  collar  was  worth  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
sterling,  and  the  silver  chain,  seven  pounds  more; 
but  that  is  to  be  accounted  among  the  reasonable 
indulgences,  whether  any  provision  is  made  for  per¬ 
ishing  millions  or  not ! 

The  old  doctrine  will  be  unpopular  in  this  degen- 
'  erate  day  of  a  secularized  Church,  but  it  is  still  to  be 
proclaimed,  for  the  offence  of  the  cross  is  not  ceased. 
No  setting  apart  of  a  tithe,  or  Lord’s  portion,  will, 
in  these  days,  suffice.  It  never  did.  The  tithe  was 
the  Jews’ minimum,  not  maximum;  it  represents  what 
the  poorest  must  give,  not  what  the  richest  might 
use  to  buy  off  the  right  to  keep  the  other  nine-tenths ! 
Instead  of  asking,  How  little  can  I  spare  for  God 
and  satisfy  His  claim  and  my  conscience?  we  should 
invert  the  terms,  and  ask,  How  little  can  I  expend 
upon  myself  and  yet  satisfy  my  actual  needs,  and 
how  much  can  I  thus  spare  for  God? 

The  missionary  age  'affords  new  opportunity  and 
incentive  for  the  culture  of  this  supreme  grace. 
Giving  will  bring  its  true  blessing,  its  greater  bless¬ 
ing,  only  when  systematic  and  self-denying. 

395 


396  THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

“Mammon”  is  simply  another  name  for  money, 
when,  instead  of  a  servant,  it  becomes  a  master, 
practically  served — an  idol  worshipped.  There  is  no 
difficulty  in  understanding  how  what  is  so  grossly 
material  as  wealth  came  to  be  associated  with  divine 
attributes ;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  its  power  to 
achieve  great  results  suggests  omnipotence  ;  its 
power  to  represent  the  giver,  wherever  his  gifts  are 
bestowed  and  their  blessings  scattered,  suggests 
omnipresence  ;  and  its  power  to  perpetuate  his  in¬ 
fluence  when  he  is  dead,  suggests  eternity.  What  a 
pity,  what  a  crime,  when  such  power  is  put  in  the 
fetters  of  selfishness,  and  locked  up  in  the  narrow 
cell  of  personal  indulgence!  when  it  achieves  no 
result  but  to  fatten  and  satiate  the  lust  of  greed, 
finds  no  sphere  outside  of  a  luxurious  home,  and  per¬ 
petuates  no  influence  but  the  example  of  the  miser ! 

One  of  the  foremost  incentives  to  missions  is  found 
in  the  blessedness  of  giving.  Christ  spake  a  new 
beatitude,  recorded  and  preserved  by  Paul,  who  said 
to  the  Ephesian  elders :  ‘ 4  Remember  the  words  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,  how  He  said,  It  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive !  ”  The  full  meaning  and  truth 
of  that  last  beatitude  is  yet  to  be  known,  and  can  be  ’ 
known  only  as  this  work  of  missions  is  done  as  He 
meant  it  should  be  done. 

This  may  be  called  a  new  motive,  for  its  power  is 
as  yet  unfelt.  Our  giving  is  not  only  imperfect  and 
inadequate,  it  is  radically  defective ;  for  its  basis  is, 
in  a  measure,  wrong  and  unsound.  The  ministry  of 
money  is  not  understood,  and  stewardship  is  practi¬ 
cally  denied.  That  is  a  virtually  effete  notion,  that 
all  I  have  belongs  to  God ;  that  it  is  not  mine  to  do  as 
I  will  with  it,  to  hoard,  or  spend,  to  use  in  selfish 
indulgence  or  bestow  in  unselfish  ministries;  but 
that  it  is  held  in  trust  for  God,  and  to  be  put  to  holy 
uses,  so  that  even  what  I  eat  and  drink  and  wear  is  to 
glorify  Him.  This  may  be  treated  with  contemptu¬ 
ous  scorn  as  an  antiquated  doctrine,  but  it  will  never 


NEW  INCENTIVES  TO  GIVING. 


397 


be  no  longer  binding  while  the  word  of  God  is  our 
guide  and  a  world  waits  to  be  saved. 

This  beatitude  represents  the  crown  of  all  beatitudes. 
There  are  three  stages  of  experience:  first,  where 
joy  is  found  only  in  getting;  second,  where  joy  is 
found  in  both  getting  and  giving ;  third,  where  giv¬ 
ing  is  the  only  real  joy,  and  getting  is  valued  only  in 
order  to  giving.  The  first  shows  the  purely  worldly 
spirit;  the  next  indexes  the  average  disciple;  the 
last  marks  the  closest  identity  with  the  Lord.  To 
this  last  only  the  few  attain  or  even  aspire.  But  to  such 
it  is  the  foretaste  of  heaven  on  earth.  The  curse  even 
of  our  Churches  is  that  getting  is  recognized  as  the 
one  thing  to  be  desired  and  sought ;  giving  is  at  best 
recognized  as  a  duty,  not  a  privilege  to  be  sought  but 
an  obligation  to  be  accepted,  and  a  thousand  expedi¬ 
ents  are  adoped  to  evade  and  avoid  that  self-denial 
which  represents  the  very  enrichment  of  giving.  If 
money  is  to  be  raised,  instead  of  counting  it  a  blessing 
to  give,  and  to  give  what  costs  self-sacrifice,  the 
constant  effort  is  to  give  what  costs  nothing ;  and  resort 
is  had  to  secular  entertainments,  concerts  and  exhibi¬ 
tions,  tea-drinkings  and  picnics,  bazaars  and  raffles, 
charades  and  tableaux,  lantern  shows  and  comic  recita¬ 
tions — the  whole  alphabet  of  the  world’s  amusements 
supplies  the  Church  with  easy  expedients  to  gather  a 
little  money  and  escape  self-denial;  and  modes,  not 
only  secular  but  unhallowed,  are  often  adopted  to 
secure  funds  for  the  most  sacred  cause  of  missions. 
The  mistake  is  the  more  serious  because  it  not  only 
secularizes  the  Church,  but  it  makes  even  our  giving 
selfish ;  the  cause  of  God  must  buy  our  support  by 
some  price  paid  to  the  eye,  in  the  spectacular;  to  the 
ear,  in  the  musical  or  the  amusing;  to  the  palate,  in  the 
delicate  or  the  delicious. 

Let  us  stop  and  once  more  ask  why  and  when  it 
is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.  Getting 
without  giving  is  absolutely  disastrous ;  even  getting 
with  giving  is  dangerous.  And  the  only  way  to  pre- 


398 


THE  NE IV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


vent  the  disaster  and  avert  the  danger  is  to  give, 
constantly,  systematically,  abundantly,  cheerfully, 
self-denyingly.  Fire  that  has  no  vent,  has  soon  no 
flame ;  if  the  flame  cannot  get  out  the  fire  goes  out.  A 
spring  without  outlet  cannot  have  inlet ;  the  water  must 
give  forth  a  stream,  or  it  seeks  a  new  channel  under¬ 
ground.  The  Christian  life  is  the  fire  of  which  giving 
is  the  vent ;  it  is  the  spring  of  which  active  benevolence 
is  the  stream.  He  who  hoards  and  withholds,  cramps 
and  crushes  and  cripples  his  own  better  nature. 

But,  as  Lowell  makes  Christ  to  say,  in  the  “  Vision 
of  Sir  Launfal,” 

“  He  who  gives  himself  with  his  alms,  feeds  three  : 

Himself,  his  hungering  neighbour,  and  Me.” 

The  miser  is  an  idolater  and  worships  the  golden 
calf.  The  law  of  all  idolatry,  twice  thundered  from 
the  Psalms,  is  universal: 

‘  ‘  They  that  make  them  are  like  unto  them . 

So  is  every  one  that  trusteth  in  them.” 

All  idols  make  the  maker  and  worshipper  like  them¬ 
selves.  If  man  worships  a  beast  he  becomes  beastly 
and  brutal ;  if  it  be  a  god  of  wood  and  stone,  dumb  and 
senseless  like  the  image ;  if  it  be  a  clod  of  earth,  earthy 
like. the  clod.  He  who  worships  gold — to  whom  the 
“  almighty  dollar,”  the  “sovereign,”  the  “Napoleon,” 
is,  as  the  names  suggest,  his  practical  monarch  and 
master,  becomes,  as  we  have  before  hinted,  a  kind  of 
coin  himself.  He  gets  to  have  a  sort  of  metallic 
hardness  and  insensibility  to  impression,  and  a  kind  of 
metallic  ring.  His  utterances,  his  preferences,  his 
tastes,  his  actions  have  the  sound  of  the  brass  trum¬ 
pet,  the  silver  cymbal,  the  gold-piece.  And  when 
he  falls  in  death,  it  is  not  a  man  who  has  disappeared 
from  among  men — not  some  bright  star  suddenly 
fading  into  darkness,  Gr  some  musical  melody  sinking 
into  silence,  or  some  fruitful  tree  torn  up  by  the 
roots — only  a  sack  of  hoarded  treasure  falling  upon 
the  stony  pavement  of  fate,  and,  as  Death  cuts  the  knot 


NEW  INCENTIVES  TO  GIVING. 


399 


that  has  held  its  month  closed,  scattering  its  coins  to 
be  picked  up  by  lawful  heirs,  or,  more  likely,  by 
greedy  lawyers !  One  who  worships  fashion  becomes 
nothing  but  a  tailor’s  dummy,  a  walking  advertise¬ 
ment,  a  suit  of  clothes  on  legs,  miscalled  a  man ;  or 
a  wax-doll,  trimmed  with  furs  and  feathers,  and  mis¬ 
called  a  woman.  The  worshippers  of  fast  horses 
come  to  have  the  savour  and  flavour  of  the  stall  and 
the  turf;  they  smell  of  the  horse;  life  is  to  them  a 
race  for  stakes,  and  their  back  is  a  saddle  for 
jockeys. 

The  objection  commonly  raised  against  giving  to 
foreign  missions — that  we  shall  never  see  the  money 
again — the  field  is  too  far  off  to  make  returns — is  itself 
an  example  of  how  a  Scripture  motive  may  be  turned 
into  a  hindrance.  Christ  bids  us,  do  good,  hoping  for 
nothing  again — give  to  those  from  whom  we  can  expect 
no  returns .  That  alone  is  giving.  If  I  invite  to  my 
supper  those  whom  I  expect  to  invite  me  again ;  or 
bestow  a  favour  where  I  look  for  reciprocal  favours, 
it  is  all  selfish  and  breeds  only ,  selfishness.  It  is 
lending,  not  giving,  for  the  loan  is  to  be  returned, 
perhaps  with  interest.  To  carry  this  principle  into 
our  benevolence  makes  benevolence  impossible.  If 
I  put  money  into  a  savings  bank,  I  have  certainly 
given  nothing  to  the  bank.  And  if  I  put  money  into 
a  Christian  church  or  school,  expecting  returns  in 
any  form  of  self-gain,  it  may  be  a  good  investment, 
but  is  it  true  giving  ? 

Our  whole  Christian  life  is  in  danger  of  being 
mammonized.  The  little  boy  who  slipped  his  penny 
into  the  contribution  box,  and  asked  his  mother 
what  sort  of  sweets  would  drop  out,  whether  caro- 
mels  or  lozenges,  was  a  good  representative  of  older 
people,  who  look  on  all  so-called  benevolent  schemes 
as  automatic  sweetmeat  machines,  into  which  you 
drop  your  penny,  or  your  shilling,  your  dollar  or 
your  pound,  to  get  sooner  or  later  some  adequate 
returns. 


400 


THE  NE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


Once  more  let  it  be  learned  by  us  that  God’s  poor¬ 
est  ones  need  our  gifts  far  less  than  we  need  the  disci¬ 
pline  of  giving.  To  say  ‘ 4  no”  to  my  selfish  greed 
and  appetite,  to  curb  my  carnal  self  and  give  reins 
to  my  spiritual  nature,  to  learn  to  give  without 
thought  of  any  returns — simply  to  confer  good  and 
impart  blessing — ah!  that  is  to  be  like  unto  God! 
The  devil  delights  in  returning  evil  for  good;  man 
is  quite  willing  to  return  good  for  good ;  but  God’s 
joy  is  to  give  the  best  where  is  returned  only  the 
worst !  Giving  is  God’s  corrective  and  antidote  to 
selfishness,  and,  because  the  remotest  field  brings  the 
slowest  returns,  and  the  most  destitute  objects  leave 
the  least  hope  of  personal  gains  to  tempt  cupidity, 
missions  to  the  heathen  furnish  the  grandest  oppor¬ 
tunity  we  can  enjoy  for  cultivating  self-oblivion — 
pure,  disinterested,  unselfish,  Christ-like  ministry  to 
want  and  woe. 

In  one  sense,  this  is  a  new  incentive,  for  there  is  a 
new  appeal  in  the  changed  conditions  of  Church  life . 
The  primitive  Church  of  the  Acts  was  a  poor  Church, 
so  poor  that  the  few  who  had  possessions  felt  con¬ 
strained  to  dispose  of  their  houses  and  lands  and 
turn  the  proceeds  into  the  common  treasury.  That 
was  a  simple,  frugal  age,  in  which  there  were  no 
great  monopolies  and  colossal  fortunes  as  now.  It 
was  not,  as  this  is,  a  materialistic  age — when  the 
very  atmosphere  was  laden  with  the  miasma  of 
miserliness  and  incited  to  greed.  We  are  living  in 
a  time  when  the  rich  are  very  rich  and  the  poor  very 
poor,  and  the  gulf  between  them  is  becoming  un¬ 
bridgeable  and  hopeless  alienation  is  the  outcome. 
These  are  days  when  there  is  far  greater  risk  of 
Christians’  becoming  electro-plated  with  fashionable 
avarice  and  hardened  into  a  respectable  insensibility 
to  human  sorrow  and  suffering;  when  it  shall  be 
easy  to  feed  and  fatten  upon  dainties,  while  Lazarus 
is  left  to  the  dogs;  when  it  shall  be  common  to  be 
comfortable  in  luxury  while  *  a  world  is  dying  of 


NEW  INCENTIVES  TO  GIVING. 


401 


poverty  and  in  sin — than  in  any  previoiis  age .  And 
hence  the  power  of  the  new  appeal.  Because  the 
very  social  life  tends  to  dull  our  ears  to  human 
need,  God  permits  the  voice  of  the  heathen’s  want 
and  woe  to  be  the  louder  and  more  clamorous  and 
the  more  ceaseless.  Intelligence  is  now  so  wide¬ 
spread  that  ignorance  of  the  world’s  need  is  well- 
nigh  impossible,  and  at  least  culpable;  and,  to  know 
that  a  thousand  millions  of  souls  are  starving  for 
the  bread  of  life,  and  that  we  can  give  it  to  them, 
and  yet  not  to  do  it,  implies  an  indifference,  an 
apathy,  whose  crime  and  curse  are  proportioned 
to  our  greater  information,  ability  and  opportunity. 
In  the  days  of  the  Apostles  there  were  neither  such 
chances  of  good,  nor  such  risks  of  harm  to  the 
Church. 

So  important  is  this  element  of  unselfishness  in 
giving,  that  to  avoid  or  evade  it  is  to  take  away  its 
vital  principle.  It  is,  then,  the  flower  without  the 
colour  or  odour — the  gem  without  its  radiance.  As 
Mr.  J.  A.  Froude  says:  “  Sacrifice  is  the  first  element 
in  religion,  and  resolves  itself  into  the  love  of  God. 
Let  the  thought  of  self  intrude,  let  the  painter  but 
pause  to  consider  how  much  reward  his  work  will 
bring  to  him,  and  the  cunning  will  forsake  his  hand 
and  the  power  of  genius  will  be  gone.  Excellence 
is  proportioned  to  the  oblivion  of  self.”  No  doubt 
money  may  be  raised  for  missions  in  ways  that  obvi¬ 
ate  self-sacrifice,  but  in  proportion  to  our  success 
is  our  failure — and  the  greater  the  success  the  worse 
the  disaster.  For  this  means  that  we  have  found  a 
way  to  make  the  sacred  ointment  and  leave  out 
the  perfume  that,  to  God,  gives  it  all  its  sweet 
savour. 

And  hence  also  it  is  that  the  more  we  succeed  in 
making  large  gifts  from  the  few  supply  the  place 
of  the  many  small  offerings  of  the  self-denying  poor, 
the  less  practical  power  is  there  in  our  very  gifts 
themselves.  It  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  chemical 


402 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


galvanism  that  an  increase  of  its  power  cannot  be 
got  by  increasing  the  dimensions  of  the  cells  of  the 
battery,  but  can  be  secured  only  by  increasing  the 
number  of  those  cells.  This  peculiarity  illustrates 
Christian  service  in  giving.  The  cumulative  energy 
of  our  gifts  depends  not  on  their  amount,  but  on 
the  sacrifice  they  involve,  and  so,  the  more  the  givers 
in  whom  this  sacrifice  is  developed,  the  grander  the 
spiritual  force  and  impetus  given  by  the  aggregate 
of  gifts.  Hence,  the  highest  Church  power  hangs 
on  all  sharing  in  the  giving . 

As  Jeanie  Deans  said  to  the  Queen:  “  It  is  not 
when  we  sleep  soft  and  wake  merrily  ourselves  that 
we  think  on  other  people’s  sufferings.  Our  hearts  are 
waxed  light  within  us  then,  and  we  are  for  righting 
our  ain  wrangs,  and  fighting  our  ain  battles.  But 
when  the  hour  of  trouble  comes  to  the  mind  or  to 
the  body,  and  when  the  hour  of  death  comes,  that 
comes  to  high  and  low — long  and  late  may  it  be 
yours  O  my  leddy ! — then  it  is  na  what  we  hae  dune 
for  oursells,  but  what  we  hae  dune  for  others,  that 
we  think  on  maist  pleasantly.” 

God  has  shown  us,  by  nearly  two  millenniums  of 
Church  history,  that  missions  have  a  vital  relation  to 
Christian  life,  and  that  their  reflex  action  is  so 
unspeakably  precious  that  all  the  cost  of  money  and 
men  is  far  more  than  repaid  in  this  returning  tide  of 
blessing.  The  vigorous  pulsation  which  drives  the 
blood  to  the  ends  of  the  body,  invigorates  the  heart 
itself  and  strengthens  its  muscular  walls.  To  nour¬ 
ish  a  missionary  spirit  is  to  enlarge,  expand,  ennoble 
our  whole  spiritual  life.  Take  one  example.  Noth¬ 
ing  is  a  greater  perplexity  and  anxiety  to  true  disciples 
than  this — how  to  ensure  a  sanctified  family  life .  It 
is  lamentable  that  children  of  Christian  parents  so 
often  grow  up,  not  only  strangers  to  God  but  open 
enemies  and  infidels.  There  seems  to  be  some  influ¬ 
ence  at  work  to  annul  and  neutralize  all  the  power  of 
holy  example.  The  fact  is  that  nothing  is  so  subtly 


NEW  INCENTIVES  TO  GIVING. 


403 


fatal  to  all  true  symmetry  of  character  as  simple 
selfishness .  There  is  a  curious  fact  in  botany.  If 
you  take  out  a  scion  from  a  tree,  cut  off  the  branch 
and  set  the  scion  downward,  all  others  that  grow  out 
of  that  branch  afterward,  will  grow  downward — and 
hence,  the  ornamental  gardener  gets  his  drooping  trees. 
The  scions  in  our  family  tree  get  early  set  downward, 
and  all  future  growths  are  earthward.  There  is  as 
truly  peril  in  a  self-indulgent  home  as  in  a  positively 
vicious  one — let  a  child  begin  by  being  pampered, 
petted,  indulged,  taught  to  gratify  whims  and  selfish 
impulses,  and  you  have  given  a  carnal  tendency  to 
the  whole  life.  Now  there  is  this  precious  fruit  of 
very  early  training  in  the  missionary  spirit,  that  your 
boy  or  girl  gets  another  centre  of  revolution  outside  of 
self.  Others*  wants  and  woes  are  thought  of,  and 
the  penny  that  would  be  wasted  on  sweets,  is  saved 
for  the  missionary  box.  It  seems  a  very  small  matter, 
but  the  scion  gets  an  upward  growth  and  all  the 
future  life,  a  tendency  upward.  Where  mission¬ 
ary  hymns  are  the  lullaby  sung  at  the  cradle,  and 
prayer  for  the  heathen  is  taught  to  lisping  lips  at  the 
mother’s  knee;  where  simple  facts  about  the  awful 
needs  of  pagan  homes  and  hearts  are  fed  to  the  child 
as  food  for  the  thought  and  tonic  for  self-denial,  and 
the  habit  is  thus  early  imparted  of  looking  beyond 
personal  comfort  and  pleasure,  and  feeling  sympathy 
for  lost  souls — a  new  and  strange  quality  is  given  to 
character.  It  is  no  strange  thing,  therefore,  that  in 
the  homes  where  a  true  missionary  atmosphere  is 
habitually  breathed  we  find  children  insensibly  grow¬ 
ing  up  to  devote  themselves  and  their  substance  to 
God. 

And  so  in  that  larger  family,  the  Church.  Noth¬ 
ing  so  cripples  even  home  work  as  neglect  of  the 
wider  field.  To  withhold  from  the  farthest  is  to 
cramp  sympathy  for  the  nearest.  And  so  it  comes 
to  pass  that  what  is  often  assigned  as  a  reason  or 
cause  for  a  lack  of  missionary  zeal  and  effort,  is 


404 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


rather  the  effect  of  it.  The  Church  that  apologizes 
for  doing  nothing  for  missions  abroad,  because  of  its 
weakness  and  poverty,  owes  its  feebleness  and  sickli¬ 
ness  to  turning  all  attention  upon  itself.  If  we  but 
knew  it,  it  is  because  we  have  such  burdens  to  be 
borne  in  the  home  work,  that  we  need  the  stimulus 
and  strength  imparted  by  active  missionary  effort 
for  the  most  distant  and  destitute.  As  Bishop  Brooks 
used  to  say,  such  excuses  resemble  the  plea  of  a 
parricide  who  first  kills  his  own  father,  and  then 
pleads  for  the  pity  of  the  court,  in  remitting  the 
penalty  in  view  of  his  orphanhood ! 

No  vice  is  more  destructive  of  Christian  character 
than  greed.  Avarice  turns  a  man  into  a  miser  who 
has  no  thought  beyond  his  hoarded  gold,  like  that 
respectable  manufacturer  in  Britain  who  spent  every 
day  for  twenty  years  in  counting  his  sovereigns  that 
he  might  gloat  over  his  treasures.  And  it  works 
harm  as  much  to  the  poor  in  his  penury  as  to  the 
rich  in  his  affluence ;  as  it  led  a  wretched  victim  of 
avarice,  in  one  of  our  American  cities,  to  split  lucifer 
matches  so  as  to  make  one  into  four.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  who  learns  the  true  uses  of  sanctified 
money  understands  how  it  can  wield  a  power  next  to 
divine,  spread  the  influence  of  a  single  life  over  a 
wide  sphere,  and  perpetuate  divine  omnipotence 
in  the  power  it  may  wield;  omnipresence,  in  the  wide 
sphere  over  which  it  spreads  the  influence  of  one  life ; 
and  eternity,  in  the  perpetuation  of  such  influence 
long  after  death. 


VII. 


THE  NEW  APPEAL  OF  MAN. 

We  tarry  to  make  more  emphatic  what  has  been 
already  referred  to — that  voice  of  human  ?ieed  which 
constitutes  a  new  incentive,  for  it  has  never  been  heard 
as  now,  and  heard  all  round  the  horizon  like  a  thunder¬ 
peal  from  all  quarters  at  once.  Never  until  now  have 
we  known  what  heathenism  and  paganism  mean.  The 
numbers  which  they  represent,  so  great  that  in 
India  alone  it  would  take  seventeen  years  to  give 
each  woman  and  girl  a  Bible,  at  the  rate  of  20,000 
a  day!  And  if  the  unevangelized  passed  day  and 
night  before  us,  one  by  one,  the  procession  would  be 
endless,  for  a  new  generation  would  have  grown  to 
majority  before  the  present  living  host  could  march 
by!  «  The  need  so  awful  and  the  woe  so  mournful 
that  no  words  can  do  justice  to  it,  and  no  figures 
illustrate  it. 

What  increased  knowledge  of  the  wants  and  woes 
of  heathendom !  What  a  book  might  be  written  on 
the  condition  of  mankind  in  pagan  lands — especially 
of  women  and  children;  the  curse  of  caste,  of  dis¬ 
honoured  labour,  of  human  slavery  and  human 
torture;  of  the  prostitution  of  virtue  in  the  name  of 
religion;  of  infanticide,  parricide,  suicide;  and  the 
countless,  nameless  enormities  and  cruelties  that 
have  made  the  places  where  paganism  dwells,  the 
habitations  of  demons.  “In  Darkest  Heathendom  ” 
is  a  volume  not  yet  written,  but  it  needs  to  be  writ¬ 
ten.  The  facts  are  not  new,  but  the  knowledge  of 
them  is  new.  The  dark  places  of  the  earth  were 
full  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty  in  the  prophetic  and 
Apostolic  ages,  but  the  midnight  had  not  then  been 
penetrated,  even  by  the  explorer’s  transient  lamp. 
Now  we  know  the  horrors  and  abominations  of  pagan, 

405 


406 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


papal,  heathen,  and  moslem  lands — the  awful  super¬ 
stitions  and  degrading  rites  that  even  “  the  Light  of 
Asia”  leaves  undispelled. 

Near  Mauch  Chunk,  in  Pennsylvania,  is  a  burning 
mine  at  Summit  Hill.  For  thirty-five  years  every 
effort  made  to  quench  it  has  failed,  and  at  a  thousand 
points  steam  and  gas  escape ;  vegetation  is  gone  and 
the  rocks  are  so  hot  as  to  blister  the  hand  at  the 
touch.  That  burning  mountain  is  the  awful  symbol 
of  heathenism.  The  unquenched  fires  have  burned 
for  ages.  War  has  been  the  almost  constant  curse 
of  a  Christless  paganism,  and,  as  Henry  the  Fifth  said: 
“  War’s  three  handmaidens  are  Blood,  Fire,  and 
Famine ;  and  Famine,  awful  as  it  is,  meekest  of  the 
three.” 

Nevertheless,  there  are  great  possibilities  waiting 
for  development,  even  in  the  heathen  world.  Gen¬ 
eral  Grant,  after  his  circuit  of  the  globe,  pronounced 
Li-Hung-Chang  one  of  the  three  greatest  statesmen 
of  the  age,  ranking  him  with  Gladstone  and 
Bismarck.  Surely  a  country  that  can  produce  such 
a  man  ought  to  be  permeated  and  penetrated  by  the 
gospel.  Sir  Bartle  Frere  witnessed  to  the  indirect 
effect  of  Christian  teaching,  that  it  everywhere  dig¬ 
nifies  labour,  sanctifies  marriage  and  family  life,  and 
uplifts  manhood;  that,  even  where  it  does  not  con¬ 
vert  and  renew,  it  checks,  refines,  and  reforms;  and 
where  it  fails  to  sanctify,  it,  at  least,  subdues. 

There  is  great  need  of  new  enterprise  in  the 
department  of  missions,  and  there  is  every  encour¬ 
agement  for  it.  Christ  still  says:  “  Follow  me,  and 
let  the  dead  bury  their  dead.”  Like  Talleyrand,  it 
behooves  the  Christian  disciple  to  keep  his  watch 
ahead  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  and  rather  surpass  than 
fall  behind  worldly  men  in  enterprise  for  God.  The 
time  is  coming  when  Christian  disciples  will  look  back 
to  this  age  as  radically  deficient  in  energy  and  holy 
activity,  just  as  we  now  look  back  to  the  age  when 
William  Carey  sought  to  rouse  England. 


THE  NEW  APPEAL  OF  MAN . 


407 


The  men  who  are  watching  the  times  are  oppressed 
with  the  incentives  God  gives  us  to  immediate  action. 
Hudson  Taylor  appeals  for  the  evangelization  of 
China  within  the  present  generation.  Not  one- 
hundredth  part  of  the  people  have  yet  been  reached. 
He  has  proposed  that,  within  five  years,  a  thousand 
more  workers  should  be  put  into  this  special  field ; 
that  two  years  should  be  allowed  for  the  study  of 
the  native  tongue,  and  three  years  given  to  direct 
labour ;  and  he  says  that,  estimating  the  population  at 
about  fifty  millions  of  families,  to  reach  fifty  families 
a  day,  for  one  thousand  days,  by  one  thousand  workers, 
would  bring  the  first  proclamation  of  the  gospel  to  all. 

We  know  also  how  critical  is  the  condition  of  the 
world  field ,  and  an  incentive  to  new  diligence  and 
greatly  increased  zeal  and  self-denial,  is  thus  sup¬ 
plied.  If  ever  in  human  history  delay  meant  dan¬ 
ger,  nay,  certain  disaster,  it  is  now.  The  seasons 
for  sowing  and  reaping,  planting  and  plucking,  are 
fixed,  and  their  limits  are  set  by  natural  laws.  A 
season  is  a  fit  time,  and  for  all  work  there  is  but  one 
fit  time.  The  sower  wastes  his  seed  if  he  sows  it 
after  sowing  time ;  and  when  the  harvest  is  ripe  the 
reaper  must  put  in  the  sickle,  or  soon  the  harvest 
will  not  be  worth  the  reaping,  for  ripeness  borders 
on  rottenness.  Immediate  is  God’s  word:  now  or 
never.  In  all  parts  of  the  mission  field  it  is  either 
time  to  sow  or  time  to  reap ;  and  in  some  cases  the 
field  invites  both  sower  and  reaper  at  once ;  for  there 
are  some  who  need  the  saving  message,  and  others 
who  have  heard  and  are  ready  for  further  and  fuller 
steps  of  teaching,  training,  ingathering,  organizing. 
We  must  not  think  that,  because  the  Church  is  more 
aroused  than  a  century  ago,  it  is  safe  to  rest  content 
with  the  present  measure  of  interest  and  that  we 
need  only  to  maintain  it.  The  Church  of  Christ 
has,  thus  far,  not  yet  begun  to  deal  in  earnest  with  her 
duty  to  the  human  race.  Four-fifths  of  the  territory 
of  heathenism  and  paganism  yet  remains  to  be 


408 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


occupied;  and  as  to  the  Moslem  millions,  they  are 
scarcely  as  yet  approached !  Even  where  civilization 
has  gone,  its  contact  with  paganism  has  often  been  a 
curse  rather  than  a  blessing!  Christian  nations  have 
been  identified  in  India  and  China  with  opium  traffic 
and  licensed  lust,  and  in  Africa  with  firearms,  slavery 
and  whiskey !  This  century  has  known  no  document 
more  pathetically  significant  than  that  first  letter 
written  in  English  by  a  Congo  native,  who  thus  ad¬ 
dressed  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury: 

“  Great  and  good  chief  of  the  tribe  of  Christ : 
Greeting :  The  humblest  of  your  servants  kisses  the 
hem  of  your  garment,  and  begs  you  to  send  to  his 
fellow  servants  more  gospel  and  less  rum.  In  the 
bonds  of  Christ — Ugalla.” 

There  are  other  developments,  besides  those  of 
time  and  tide,  which  4 *  wait  for  no  man.”  In  the 
field  given  us  to  till,  God’s  work  cannot  and  will  not 
wait.  While  we  sleep  Satan  is  busy.  He  will  sow 
his  seed  if  we  do  not  sow  God’s.  And  his  pre-occu¬ 
pation  will  double  the  difficulty  when  we  do  under¬ 
take  for  God.  Yes,  if  disciples  do  not  sow  the  wide 
and  open  fields  of  the  world,  demons  will.  We  must 
not  sleep,  for  the  devil  never  does. 

In  some  cases  heathenism  is  now  a  house  without 
an  occupant,  ‘ 6  empty,  swept,  garnished;”  people 
tired  of  idols  and  ignorance,  fling  away  their  false 
faiths  and  yearn  for  knowledge.  When  man  is  left 
without  any  religion,  he  is  in  greatest  risk.  Satan 
watches  to  take  possession  of  the  empty  house,  with 
sevenfold  disaster  to  the  soul.  Apathy — neglect  of 
opportunity — this  is  all  that  is  needed  on  the  part  of 
disciples,  and  irreparable  damage  will  ensue.  While 
we  are  sending  forth  one  out  of  five  thousand  Protes¬ 
tant  Church  members,  to  carry  gospel  tidings,  and 
giving  less  than  a  tenth  of  one  per  cent,  on  our 
average  income  to  keep  them  at  work,  the  consecra¬ 
tion  of  self  and  substance  is  so  far  behind  that  of  the 
Apostolic  Church  that  it  hints  an  apostasy. 


THE  NEW  APPEAL  OF  MAN . 


409 


Watch  Satan  as  he  enters  every  open  door,  send¬ 
ing  his  agents  everywhere,  poisoning  the  minds  of 
young  Japanese  and  Hindus  with  Western  scepticism 
before  we  have  got  our  Christian  books  and  tracts 
ready,  flooding  the  Soudan  and  the  Congo  valley 
with  the  drink  that  drowns  reason  and  conscience, 
before  we  have  sent  missionaries  there ! 

Opportunity  never  lingers,  and  when,  if  ever,  it 
returns,  like  the  Sibyl  its  price  is  more  costly  and  its 
precious  treasures  are  less.  The  Emperor  of  Brazil 
accounted  for  the  great  inferiority  of  Brazil  to  the 
great  Republic  of  the  north,  in  one  sentence.  He 
said:  “  My  countrymen  always  cry  manana! — 

to-morrow,  to-morrow;  but  the  United  States  citizen 
says  to-day !”  Would  to  God  the  Church  would 
stop  all  boasting  of  to-morrow  and  improve  to-day. 


VIII. 


\ 


HARMONY  WITH  GOD’S  PURPOSE. 


To  work  with  God  and  on  God’s  plan  is  the  only 
real  bliss,  and  the  only  sure  success.  All  else  is  dis¬ 
appointment  and  failure.  President  Lincoln  was 
once  taunted  by  an  adversary  with  the  temporary 
defeat  of  political  measures  which  he  had  adopted  in 
the  interests  of  the  eternal  principles  of  right.  His 
sublime  reply  was:  “  Defeat!  If  it  were  notone, 
but  one  hundred  defeats,  I  should  still  pursue  the 
same  unchanging  course.”  And,  on  another  occa¬ 
sion,  when,  during  the  war  for  the  Union,  a  timid  man 
ventured  to  say:  “  I  hope  God  will  be  on  our  side,” 
his  response  was:  “  My  only  anxiety  is  to  be  on 
God’s  side.”  And  it  was  this  man  of  an  incarnate 
conscience  whose  heroic  words  were:  “  Let  us 
believe  that  right  makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let 
us  to  the  end  dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand 
it.”  It  is  the  same  sentiment  that  Faber  crystallized 
into  verse : 


“  He  always  wins  who  sides  with  God ; 
With  him  no  chance  is  lost.” 


It  is,  therefore,  of  immense  importance  to  us  to 
know  what  God's  plan  is  and  then  to  take  onr  place 
in  it .  As  to  the  purpose  of  God  in  this  dispen¬ 
sation,  Anthony  Grant  has,  in  his  Bampton  Lectures, 
given  clear  and  brief  statement:  “That  the  gospel 
shall  be  preached  in  some  places  at  all  times,  and  in  all 
places  at  some  time.”  And  beyond  this  we  know 
very  little.  How  large  or  rapid  are  to  be  the  visible 
results  in  anyone  field  is  a  matter  never  yet  unveiled; 
it  is  one  of  the  secret  things  that  belong  unto  the 
Lord  our  God.  But  what  is  revealed  is  His  will  that 


410 


HARMONY  WITH  GOD'S  PURPOSE. 


411 


we  should  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature. 

Then  if,  as  George  Bowen  told  Dr.  Norman  McLeod 
of  himself,  thirty  years  are  spent  in  India  without  one 
known  convert,  we  can  still  do  our  duty — for  in  God’s 
eyes  that  is  success;  all  else,  failure.  In  this  doing 
of  God’s  will  on  God’s  plan,  the  holiest  aspiration  finds 
satisfaction.  A  divine  ambition  engrosses  the  soul. 
This  is  the  avenue  to  the  purest,  widest  influence. 
One  may,  at  God’s  bidding,  go  into  comparative 
retirement  and  obscurity — as  Bishop  Butler,  author 
of  the  famous  “  Analogy,”  into  the  little  country 
parish  of  Stanhope,  so  that  Archbishop  Blackburne 
told  Queen  Caroline  that  he  was  ‘  ‘  not  dead,  but 
buried” — but  if  it  be  at  God’s  bidding  it  is  no  burial 
alive,  except  as  a  seed  secreted  for  a  crop.  Butler, 
during  that  apparent  burial,  was  writing  that  great 
work  which  revolutionized  the  thinking  of  that 
deistic  age ! 

In  great  crises  of  Church  history  some  word  of 
God  has  become  the  rallying  cry  of  His  true  fol¬ 
lowers.  The  motto  of  the  Apostolic  age  was : 
“Christ  died  for  our  sins,  and  rose  again,  according 
to  the  Scriptures.”  During  the  Lutheran  Reforma¬ 
tion,  the  watchword  was:  “The  just  shall  live  by 
faith.”  And,  for  this  age  of  missions,  what  is  a 
more  fitting  battle-cry  than  that  which  has  been 
spontaneously  chosen  by  the  Student  Volunteers  in 
their  “  New  Crusade:” 

THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  THE  WORLD  IN  THIS 

GENERATION  ! 

This,  now  famous  motto,  has  been  traced  to  the 
writer  of  these  pages,  as  its  author,  because  he  first 
gave  it  expression  at  the  inauguration  of  this  move¬ 
ment  at  Mount  Hermon,  Mass.,  eight  years  ago.  But 
the  fact  is,  he  got  this  motto  from  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  the  Acts,  verses  22  and  36,  where  the 
Holy  Spirit  says  of  David,  that,  God  in  him  found  a 


412 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


man  after  His  own  heart,  which  should  fulfil  all  His 
will,  and  that  he  served  his  own  generation  by  the  will 
of  God .  Let  us  write  that  divine  motto  on  all  our 
banners ! 

How  much  is  included  here!  Sovereignty — a  divine 
Master;  Service — a  world’s  evangelization ;  Sphere — 
our  own  generation ;  a  Secret  and  Signal — the  will 
of  God. 

A  most  expressive  word  is  here  rendered,  “  served  M 
— it  means  to  be  an  under-rower,  and  refers  to  the 
ancient  galleys  with  their  banks  of  oars,  where  every 
man  who  held  an  oar  served  under  the  control  of  the 
pilot.  All  God  asks  of  us  is  to  take  the  place  which 
He  assigns,  and  there  do  our  work,  watching  His 
signal.  When  there  is  obedience  to  His  will,  there  is 
sure  to  be  co-operation  with  all  other  obedient  souls, 
since  they  heed  the  same  signal.  The  conception  is 
magnificent.  What  a  symphony  of  action !  what  a 
harmony  of  movement! — the  oars  rising  and  falling, 
dipping  and  dripping  together,  though  the  oarsmen 
see  not  each  other,  and  plan  no  such  co-operation; 
because  one  will  sways  all  alike,  and  controls  the 
synchronisms  and  coincidences  of  history  by  a  unity 
of  universal  plan. 

And  what  identity  with  God!  His  will  is  His 
personality.  To  serve  under  that  will  as  the  all¬ 
controlling  signal,  is  to  be  one  with  Him — to  be 
about  our  Father’s  business.  What  authority!  for 
all  is  done  in  the  name  of  the  one  Master.  What 
holy  audacity!  as  when  David  approached  Goliath: 
“  I  come  to  thee  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  God  of  the 
armies  of  Israel,  whom  thou  hast  defied !  ”  What 
security  to  him  who  does  the  will  of  God!  “All 
things  work  together  for  good,”  in  the  orbit  of  obedi¬ 
ence,  which  is  a  part  of  a  universal  system  where 
God  is  Sun  and  Centre !  And  what  success !  Into  the 
channel  of  our  weak  and  wayward  will  is  turned  the 
very  river  of  God — the  mighty  torrent  of  His 
omnipotence,  to  turn  the  wheels  of  our  life  and  action, 


HARMONY  WITH  GOD'S  PURPOSE. 


413 


and  insure  uninterrupted  power  and  ultimate  accom¬ 
plishment.  And  what  is  the  natural  sphere  of  every 
disciple’s  work  and  witness,  if  it  be  not  his  own 
generation  ?  He  cannot  affect  the  past  generations, 
and  the  best  way  to  serve  the  future  is  by  fidelity  to 
the  present.  He  may  in  a  sense  belong  to  the  whole 
race  of  man,  but  he  is  especially  related  to  the  human 
family  as  living  on  earth  at  the  same  period  with  him¬ 
self.  Their  claims  on  him  are  paramount,  pressing, 
immediate,  imperative. 

If  the  Church  would  come  into  harmony  with  God’s 
purpose,  here  is  the  secret: — He  must  be  acknowl¬ 
edged  as  absolute  Master,  and  His  command  must  be 
the  sole,  sufficient  authority.  Service  must  be  con¬ 
ceived  as  part  of  a  full  discipleship  and  even  a 
complete  salvation ;  and  that  service  must  be  accepted 
as  proclaiming  the  gospel  to  every  human  creature. 
The  will  of  God  must  be  the  one  all-commanding 
signal  which  we  watch,  study,  and  obey.  And  our 
own  generation  must  be,  to  our  constant  thought  and 
prayer,  the  great  and  present  sphere  for  our  ener¬ 
getic  and  consecrated  activity. 

God  has  given  a  banner  to  them  that  fear  Him, 
that  it  may  be  displayed  because  of  the  truth.  And 
let  the  Church  lift  that  banner  high  and  bear  it  in  the 
very  front  of  the  ranks  and  the  thick  of  the  fight — 
with  this  motto  emblazoned  on  it: 

SERVING  OUR  OWN  GENERATION  BY  THE  WILL  OF  GOD. 


IX. 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE. 

One  powerful  incentive,  of  which  not  only  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  but  the  whole  New  Testament 
is  full,  is,  we  fear,  far  less  prominent  in  the  thoughts 
of  the  modern  Church — we  refer  to  the  blessed  hope 
of  our  Lord's  Return . 

This  was,  no  doubt,  the  foremost  of  all  motives, 
hopes  and  incentives,  which  moved  early  disciples  to 
zeal  and  activity  in  missions ;  and  to  revive  this  hope 
— to  make  it  practically  the  mighty  motor  to  us  that 
it  was  to  them,  is  to  provide  a  new  impulse  and 
impetus  in  the  work  of  a  world’s  evangelization. 
This  motive,  though  so  old,  is  an  ever  new  incentive. 
Hope  is  the  one  impulse  that  never  loses  its  youth, 
and  above  all,  this  hope.  It  never  falls  behind,  but 
always  goes  before,  onward,  upward,  finding  in  the 
goal  of  yesterday  its  starting  point  to-day,  and  in  its 
goal  of  to-day  only  its  starting  point  to-morrow. 

The  incentive,  drawn  from  our  Lord’s  promised 
Return,  He  Himself  has  forever  connected  with  our 
duty  to  a  lost  world.  He  says,  ‘ ‘  Occupy  till  I  come." 
Mistaken  notions,  associated  with  His  second  advent, 
have  so  marred  its  visage  as  to  make  it  even  re¬ 
pulsive  and  distasteful  to  some  disciples,  so  that, 
what  to  the  Apostolic  Church  was  the  main  help, 
has  been  spoken  of  as  a  hindrance,  to  missions.  Out 
of  the  dust  of  neglect  and  contempt  let  us  lift  this 
standard  of  the  mission  host,  and  once  more  make  it 
the  banner  which  leads  us  on  to  victory ! 

Our  Lord’s  Coming  is  represented  as  always  immi¬ 
nent,  and  thus  it  quickens  our  activity .  Imminence  is 
the  combination  of  certainty  with  uncertainty — cer¬ 
tainty  at  some  time,  uncertainty  at  what  time ;  and 

414 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE . 


415 


hence  its  perpetual  warning :  “Be  ye  always  ready, 
for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh !  ” 

The  uniform  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  is 
that  the  Lord  is  ever  at  hand.  “  Behold  the  Judge 
standeth  before  the  door,”  His  hand  on  the  latch! 
When  He  will  open  and  enter,  no  man  nor  angel 
knoweth;  but  when  He  does,  it  will  be  suddenly, 
without  knocking;  and  because  we  “  know  not  when 
the  time  is,”  He  bids  us  “  Watch  and  pray.”  Such  a 
sense  of  the  imminence  of  His  coming  must  inspire, 
quicken,  stimulate,  missionary  activity. 

As  the  Son  of  Man  went  into  the  far-off  country 
to  receive  for  Himself  a  kingdom-,  and  to  return,  He 
committed  to  His  servants,  as  stewards,  the  whole 
world  as  a  mission  field,  saying:  “  Occupy  till  I 
come,”  giving  no  hint  of  the  time  of  His  return,  that 
there  may  be  constant  alertness  and  watchfulness. 
And  the  natural  consequence  with  every  faithful  ser¬ 
vant  is  that  he  hastens  to  invest  in  trade  what  talents 
are  left  him  in  trust,  that  at  his  Master’s  Coming  he 
may  be  found  faithful  and  his  gifts  fruitful. 

Such  is  the  philosophy  of  this  Hope.  What  is  the 
fact?  There  are  two  immutable  things  in  which  it 
is  impossible  for  history  to  lie,  namely:  first,  the 
early  Christians  felt  our  Lord’s  Coming  to  be  im¬ 
minent;  second,  the  early  Church  was  conspicuous 
for  missionary  zeal.  So  vividly  was  the  second 
advent  at  hand,  to  Thessalonian  disciples,  that  they 
gave  too  little  heed  to  those  events  which  must 
first  occur;  and  yet,  when  was  any  Church  so  per¬ 
meated  and  penetrated  with  missionary  enthusiasm ! 
Paul  sounds  the  keynote  of  their  whole  fidelity: 
serving  the  living  God,  and  waiting  for  His  Son  from 
heaven ! 

Early  Christians  looked  for  the  King’s  Return,  at 
any  time.  He  had  entrusted  them  with  a  commis¬ 
sion,  and  the  King’s  business  required  haste.  They 
tarried  not,  save  for  that  enduement  which  was  their 


416 


THE  NE  IV  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


equipment.  Then  to  the  bounds  of  Judea,  Samaria, 
Galilee;  to  Antioch,  Athens,  Ephesus,  Rome,  they 
sped  with  the  message.  Peter  went  eastward  to  the 
elect  dispersion ;  Paul  swept,  like  a  flame,  westward, 
across  Asia  Minor,  and  into  Europe,  till  he  touched 
Italy,  perhaps  Spain  and  Britain.  Within  one  gener¬ 
ation,  the  Cross  overtook  the  Roman  Eagle,  and  the 
priests  of  false  fanes  feared  lest  their  work  was  at  an 
end.  Such  will  ever  be  the  power  of  this  Hope  over 
those  who  are  by  it  held  in  constant  expectancy  of  the 
Lord’s  advent. 

On  the  contrary,  so  soon  as  we  lose  sight  of  its 
imminence  and  say,  “  My  Lord  delayeth  His  com¬ 
ing,”  we  are  tempted  to  indolence,  self-indulgence, 
and  controversy  on  minor  matters.  When  disciples 
felt  the  time  to  be  short  and  the  duty  to  be  urgent, 
they  were  “all  at  it  and  always  at  it;”  self-denial 
was  an  easy  yoke  and  petty  jealousies  were  scorned  as 
trifles.  So  soon  and  so  long  as  that  hope  was  dim, 
and  Christ’s  Coming  was  pushed  into  the  far-off  future, 
the  Church  began  leisurely  working,  then  flippantly 
playing  at  missions,  as  though  vast  cycles  of  time  lay 
before  us  in  which  to  witness  to  the  world.  Revive 
this  hope  of  the  Lord’s  Coming  and  it  begets  hourly 
watching,  ceaseless  praying,  tireless  toiling,  patient 
waiting. 

Moreover  this  blessed  hope  is  forever  linked  with 
the  glorious  compensation  for  all  service  a?id  sacrifice 
for  Christ.  “  Behold  I  come  quickly,  and  my  reward 
is  with  me,  to  give  every  man  according  as  his  work 
shall  be.” 

His  Coming  then,  not  our  death,  opens  the  door  to 
the  wedding  feast,  and  the  “  Joy  of  the  Lord.”  Then 
the  prize  awaits  the  successful  runner.  Then  the 
“crowns”  are  to  be  given — the  “crown  of  life”  to 
martyrs  faithful  unto  death,  the  ‘  ‘  crown  of  righteous¬ 
ness  ”  to  all  who  love  His  appearing,  the  “  crown  of 
glory”  to  shepherds  who  “feed  the  flock,”  the 
“crown  of  rejoicing  ”  to  those  who  win  souls,  the 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE . 


417 


“  crown  incorruptible  ”  to  those  who  keep  the  body 
under  and  bring  it  into  subjection. 

Is  it  strange  that  the  soldier  of  Christ  endures 
hardness,  fights  the  good  fight  of  faith,  carries  the 
cross  at  all  risks  to  plant  it  on  Satan’s  strongholds, 
while  he  is  looking  daily  for  the  coming  of  the  Cap¬ 
tain  of  his  salvation,  and  knows  not  how  soon  he  may 
lay  down  his  warrior’s  armour  for  the  crown  of  victory? 
Paul  forgot  all  his  losses  in  such  gains — and  counted 
all  but  refuse,  for  the  sake  of  the  resurrection  hope. 
Fellowship  with  Christ  in  suffering  brings  fellowship 
in  glory;  and  to  die  with  Him  as  a  malefactor  is  to  be 
exalted  with  Him  as  a  benefactor. 

With  many  disciples,  the  eyes  are  yet  blinded  to 
this  mystery  of  rewards,  which  is  one  of  the  open 
mysteries  of  the  Word,  and  some  cannot  see  how 
rewards  can  have  any  place  in  an  economy  of  grace. 
But  we  must  not  confound  salvation  and  recompense. 
It  must  be  an  imputed  righteousness, — exceeding  far 
that  of  the  most  proper  Pharisee — whereby  we  e7iter 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven;  but,  having  thus  entered  by 
faith ,  our  works  determine  our  relative  rank,  place, 
reward,  in  that  Kingdom.  Eternal  life  is  God’s  gift 
to  be  had  for  the  asking;  but  he  who  receives  the  gift, 
and  does  work,  sowing  and  reaping  for  God,  re- 
ceiveth  also  wages  and  gathereth  fruit  unto  life 
eternal.  Gifts  are  bestowed;  wages  earned.  Sinners 
become  saved  saints  only  by  grace;  but  saints  are 
rewarded  for  service.  And  so  Paul  warns  Corin¬ 
thian  Christians  that  even  he  who  is  saved,  may  be 
saved  as  by  fire  and  suffer  loss  in  the  burning  up 
of  his  worthless  work;  or  he  may  both  be  saved 
and  have  a  reward  in  an  abiding  work.* 

We  shall  never  have  Apostolic  missions  till  this 
Apostolic  Hope  claims  again  its  rightful  place.  Daily 
dying — so  that  in  the  body  one  bears  the  marks  of  the 
Lord  Jesus — will  be  easy  only  to  him  who  feels  re¬ 
demption  drawing  nigh;  and  who  follows  the  Son 

♦  Cor.  iii.  12-15. 


418 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


of  Man  in  His  humiliation,  as  one  who  is  to  sit 
with  Him  on  the  Throne  of  His  glory.  His  expected 
appearing  is  His  saints’  avenging  and  rewarding. 
It  is  the  righting  of  the  wrongs  of  the  ages.  Un¬ 
recompensed  toil  receives  its  wages,  and  long  wait¬ 
ing  martyrs  reach  their  coronation.  Then,  however 
dark  the  discipline  and  dismal  the  failure  of  mission 
work,  faithfulness  and  not  success  will  be  the  stand¬ 
ard  and  measure  of  reward.  We  must  have  our 
work  always  done ,  ready  for  His  scrutiny. 

This  hope  weans  us  from  the  world ,  and  by  loosen¬ 
ing  the  hold  and  lessening  the  worth  of  all  present 
things  makes  stronger  the  powers  of  the  age  to 
come.  The  steward  whose  Master  may  at  once 
come  and  call  him  to  account,  cannot  hoard  treasures 
of  mammon  or  quaff  pleasure’s  intoxicating  cup. 
He  cannot  bury  his  “  pounds”  in  houses  and  lands, 
costly  plate  and  gems,  stocks  and  stores ;  it  must  be 
turned  into  currency — current  coin,  passing  from 
hand  to  hand,  like  streams  that  swell  as  they  flow. 
The  time  is  short,  but  eternity  is  long ;  and,  there¬ 
fore,  there  is  nothing  that  is  “  worth  while,”  but  to 
push  our  lines  of  labour  to  the  ends  of  earth,  and 
keep  our  witness  constant  and  clear  to  the  end  of 
time,  that  the  eternal  may  sway  us  rather  than  the 
temporal. 

Thus  this  blessed  Hope  both  loosens  the  hold  we 
have  on  this  world  and  the  hold  this  world  has  on 
us.  A  true  belief  in  the  testimony  of  our  Lord  that 
in  such  an  hour  as  we  think  not  He  cometh,  and  that 
we  must  watch  and  pray  because  we  know  not  when 
the  time  is — makes  impossible  all  plans  for  a  soft 
nest  and  an  easy  life  of  indulgence  and  indolence, 
for  the  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand,  and  the  mid¬ 
night  cry  may  soon  be  heard.  What  have  we  to  do 
with  any  pursuits  or  pleasures  which  His  coming 
could  interrupt  or  condemn,  bring  into  contempt  or 
bring  to  naught!  If  we  are  to  build  Heaven  here, 
we  may  be  justified  in  laying  deep  and  firm  founda- 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE . 


419 


tions;  but  if  all  these  things  are  to  be  dissolved,  if 
all  work  not  done  for  God  is  to  be  burned  up  as 
wood,  hay,  stubble,  and  the  work  done  for  God  is  to 
be  tried  by  fire — then  what  folly  to  spend  our  faculty 
and  vital  force  upon  what  is  to  be  turned  to  ashes ! 
Let  us  walk  with  God  and  work  with  God,  and  so 
prepare  a  structure  of  character  and  of  service  which 
shall  survive  the  fiery  ordeal. 

Perhaps  at  no  one  point  does  the  hope  of  our 
Lord’s  Return  touch  our  need  so  closely  and  vitally 
as  in  this — that  it  incites  to  unselfish  service .  Missions 
appeal  more  than  any  other  form  of  service  to  the 
unworldly  and  unselfish  spirit,  and  find  only  in  such 
spirit  their  support,  nay  their  practical  basis.  Much 
that  goes  by  the  name  of  “Christian  work”  is 
leavened  with  self-love,  is  prosecuted  in  the  energy 
of  the  flesh,  and  finds  its  real  though  unconscious 
incentive  in  the  worldly  hope  of  rich  returns  of 
temporal  advantage.  A  railway  corporation  might, 
on  commercial  principles,  help  to  build  schools  and 
churches  along  its  lines,  for  these  form  a  nucleus  for 
population,  and  so  for  ultimate  dividends  to  stock¬ 
holders;  much  that  men  call  benevolence  is  but  the 
cloak  that  hides  the  shrewd  Shylock,  who  has  an  eye 
to  business. 

The  modern  outcry  that  “missions  do  not  pay,” 
comes  of  this  selfish,  calculating  spirit  that  demands 
prompt  payments  of  interest  on  every  investment. 
Cut  to  the  core  the  apathy  that  exists  as  to  work  among 
the  heathen,  and  you  find  simple  selfishness.  This 
work  in  the  regions  beyond,  by  its  very  nature  forbids 
such  returns:  these  distant,  destitute  souls  cannot 
recompense  us.  The  most  passionate  appeals  for 
perishing  millions  along  the  Congo,  beneath  the 
shadows  of  the  Himalayas  or  in  the  Corean 
valleys,  will  be  unheeded  by  hearts  electroplated 
with  greed  or  petrified  by  selfishness.  Of  course 
missions  “do  not  pay,”  if  “pay”  means  any  form 
of  temporal  recompense.  Missions  are  not  a  mint 


420 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


for  coining  sovereigns,  but  a  means  of  saving  souls 
and  witnessing  to  Christ. 

To  give  money  and  send  men  and  women  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth  to  sacrifice  themselves  for  canni¬ 
bals  and  Hottentots,  half  brutal  and  half  idiotic  sav¬ 
ages,  4 ‘human  baboons  ”  and  stupid  barbarians,  is 
putting  money  into  a  bag  with  holes  and  burying 
pearls  in  rubbish, — so  say  the  worldly-minded.  And 
we  join  no  issue  with  such.  Missions  to  the  heathen 
yield  slow  returns,  and  seldom  justify  to  human 
judgment  the  costly  outlay.  God,  perhaps,  does  not 
mean  they  shall.  He  gives  us  this  work  as  nearest 
in  motive  and  spirit  to  that  which  brought  Jesus  to 
the  cross,  as  the  most  unselfish  work  in  which  we 
can  engage;  and,  because  its  essence  lies  in  self- 
oblivion,  the  spirit  of  missions  is  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
To  be  a  true  missionary  we  must  be  emptied  of  self — 
give  to  those  from  whom  we  cannot  hope  to  receive, 
and  bid  to  the  feast  those  who  are  not  likely  to  have 
any  feast  to  invite  us  to;  and  so  the  miser  dies  when 
the  missionary  is  born ;  the  carnal  is  cast  out  if  the 
spiritual  is  to  come  in;  only  he  who  loses  himself  can 
save  others. 

But  just  here  the  hope  of  the  Lord’s  Coming  sup¬ 
plies  exactly  what  is  needed.  It  gives  us  a  loftier 
level  than  this  world  affords,  from  which  to  take  our 
survey.  Once  let  this  conviction,  this  consciousness 
flood  the  soul  of  the  believer,  that  the  Risen  Lord  is 
himself  coming  back,  and  may  at  any  time  turn  His 
promise  into  His  presence — and  this  outpouring  of 
consecrated  gifts  and  devoted  lives  for  the  sake  of 
the  lost,  becomes  a  breaking  of  the  alabaster  flask 
upon  Jesus’  feet,  and  there  is  “purpose”  in  this 
“waste.”  John  may  solve  what  to  Judas  is  a 
mystery. 

The  blessed  Hope,  which  our  Lord  would  have 
us  to  restore  to  its  former  and  deserved  prominence, 
has  a  subtle  influence  in  refining  character  of 
selfishness,  and  this  makes  it  the  very  matrix  and 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE. 


421 


mould  of  missions.  Its  whole  tendency  is  to  turn 
our  thoughts  away  from  self  to  Him,  to  relax  our 
hold  upon  all  else,  and  remould  us  after  the  power 
of  an  endless  life.  It  makes  all  time  seem  short  and 
the  whole  world  seem  small,  dwarfs  the  present  age 
into  insignificance,  and  lifts  the  age  to  come  like  a 
towering  peak  that  leaves  all  else  far  below. 

In  those  seven  epistles  to  the  Churches  which  open 
the  Apocalypse,  our  Lord  uses  His  imminent  Coming 
as  a  perpetual  hope,  motive,  incentive;  and  this  is 
enough  to  make  it  a  sin,  if  not  a  crime,  to  lose  sight  of 
it.  It  was  because  His  Coming  was  ever  at  hand  when 
trials  were  to  end  and  triumphs  to  begin,  that  the 
Ephesians  must  bear,  have  patience,  and  not  faint; 
the  Smyrnese  endure  the  ten  days  of  tribulation ;  the 
Pergamoans  hold  fast  His  name  and  not  deny  the 
faith;  the  Thyatirans  resist  Jezebel’s  seductions;  the 
Sardians  keep  up  their  watch  and  keep  white  their 
garments;  the  Philadelphians  keep  the  Word  of  His 
Patience,  and  the  Laodiceans  abandon  lukewarmness 
for  ardour  and  fervour. 

This  blessed  Hope  is  the  crown  of  all  other  hopes, 
and  suggests  to  us  an  expectation  that  will  be 
realized . 

Much  of  the  discouragement  felt  in  connection 
with  missions  results  from  a  mistaken  notion  as  to 
what  is  to  be  their  proper  outcome ;  and  it  is  so  vital 
to  both  our  true  work  and  our  true  joy  that  we 
understand  our  Lord’s  plan,  that  it  may  be  well  for 
us  to  go  back  to  the  rudiments  and  begin  anew,  lest 
we  have  built  into  our  missionary  conceptions  some 
elements  not  warranted  by  the  Word. 

There  are  many  who  understand  by  our  Lord’s 
parables  of  the  mustard  seed  and  leaven,  a  gradual 
growth  and  extension  of  the  kingdom,  during  the 
present  dispensation,  until  the  world  is  transformed 
into  one  great  believing  brotherhood.  In  this  view 
the  gospel  is  a  seed  set  in  the  soil  of  society,  to  take 
root  and  grow  until  the  earth  is  filled  with  its  far- 


422 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


reaching  branches;  or  it  is  a  leaven,  hid  in  the  three 
measures  of  meal — the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil ! 
— to  leaven  the  lump,  modifying  the  evil  it  touches, 
until  the  world  is  changed  into  the  Church,  the  flesh 
into  the  spirit,  and  the  devil  is  driven  out  altogether, 
like  the  gases  that  escape  from  the  fermenting 
dough. 

Does  the  Scripture  teaching  justify  us  in  looking 
for  the  “  conversion  of  the  world  ”  during  the  pres¬ 
ent  dispensation,  or  is  this  the  period  of  the  out- 
gathering  of  the  Church  from  all  nations?  This  is 
not  a  question  of  mere  curiosity  or  speculation ;  it 
concerns  the  whole  work  of  missions.  For  what  are 
we  to  labour,  and  what  is  to  be  our  rational  scrip¬ 
tural  hope?  James  bade  the  first  council  at  Jerusa¬ 
lem  hearken  unto  him  as  he  reminded  them  of  God’s 
purpose  as  declared  by  Simeon,  visiting  the  gentiles 
“  to  take  out  of  them  a  people  for  His  name.” 

That  is  not  only  uniformly  declared  to  be  the  exact 
purpose  of  gospel  witness  during  these  times  of  the 
gentiles,  but  it  has  been  the  actual  result  of  these 
nearly  two  thousand  years  of  such  witness.  At  this 
advanced  age  history  is  interpreting  prophecy  and 
expounding  Scripture,  if  we  will  but  hear  it.  We  see 
good  growths  and  rich  harvests  from  the  seed  of  the 
kingdom;  but  the  tares  are  growing  side  by  side 
with  the  wheat,  and  we  are  divinely  told  that  they 
will  so  continue  until  the  end  of  the  age.  Our  high¬ 
est  “Christian  civilization  ”  is  an  amalgamation  of 
the  Church  and  the  world;  and  the  leaven  of  the 
world  is  as  surely  in  the  Church,  as  the  influence  of  the 
Church  is  in  the  world.  No  doubt  the  world  is  more 
churchly,  but  there  is  as  little  doubt  that  the  Church 
is  more  worldly.  The  dialect  of  Ashdod  corrupts 
the  language  of  Canaan.  The  strait  gate  is  wider 
and  the  narrow  way  is  broader  than  of  old ;  and  those 
who  would  come  into  the  kingdom  find  an  easy  en¬ 
trance  and  an  attractive  avenue,  smooth-paved  and 
bordered  with  flowers.  How  few  even  profess  self- 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE . 


423 


denial  in  cross  bearing!  If  the  schools  have  found 
no  royal  road  to  learning,  the  Church  has  built  one 
to  Heaven. 

The  proofs  are  sadly  at  hand  of  that  conformity  to 
the  world  which  is  so  positively  forbidden.  For 
ages  the  slime  of  the  serpent  has  been  upon  certain 
worldly  amusements  which,  whatever  be  their  in¬ 
herent  quality,  bear  the  stamp  of  Satan’s  ownership 
and  use.  And  yet  Church  members  sit  till  midnight 
over  “  progressive  euchre,”  enter  their  thorough¬ 
breds  on  the  race-course,  tipple  over  the  wine  cup, 
whirl  through  the  giddy  dance,  sanction  the  theatre 
and  use  its  flavour  to  give  relish  to  church  socials. 
Church  life  is  honeycombed  with  worldliness,  and 
practical  separation  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The 
great  body  of  disciples  are  only  nominally  such, 
either  wholly  worldly  or  worldly  holy;  at  the  door 
of  frivolous  gaiety  they  drop  their  Christian  con¬ 
sistency,  as  an  oriental  guest  shuffles  off  his  sandals, 
and  mix  freely  with  the  idolaters  of  folly  and  fashion. 
The  Church  is  to-day  in  danger  of  the  moral  putre¬ 
faction  that  loses  all  godly  savour,  and  the  moral 
petrifaction  that  loses  all  godly  sensibility.  Apos¬ 
tolic  piety  scarcely  survives  in  the  Church  at  large. 
Disciples  rarely  keep  themselves  unspotted  from  the 
world;  and,  instead  of  the  isolation  and  insulation 
necessary  for  receiving  and  conveying  spiritual 
power,  it  is  only  here  and  there  that  we  find  a  few 
who  seem  to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit. 

As  to  the  condition  of  the  world,  even  in  this 
boasted  nineteenth  century,  it  is  as  far  from  “con¬ 
version,”  say  the  most  sagacious  students  of  history, 
as  in  the  days  of  Augustus.  When  the  glamour  and 
halo  of  all  this  deceptive  glory  is  penetrated,  what 
do  we  find?  An  era  of  inventive  genius  and  worldly 
enterprise,  but  God-denying  and  God-defying  infidel¬ 
ity  and  anarchy.  Giant  sons  of  Anak  go  about  break¬ 
ing  down  faith  in  God  and  the  Bible.  Philosophy 
blooms  into  pantheism  and  materialism,  rationalism 


424 


THE  HE  W  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


and  agnosticism.  Some  who  have  drawn  their  very 
life  from  Christianity  now  turn  to  curse  the  dam  that 
nursed,  and  wound  the  breast  that  fed,  them. 

The  ripeness  of  modern  civilization  borders  on  rot¬ 
tenness,  and  while  men  boast  of  society,  its  founda¬ 
tions  sink ;  and  the  anarchy,  which  is  the  natural  end 
of  atheism,  threatens  all  with  wreck.  Science  itself 
.  has  furnished  the  lawless  with  weapons  which  are 
equally  mighty  against  ballot  or  bullet;  and  Germany 
and  Russia,  France  and  Britain,  and  the  great  Repub¬ 
lic,  are  to-day  at  the  mercy  of  the  dynamite  fiend ! 

Notwithstanding  such  signs  of  the  times,  there  are 
some  who  regard  the  outlook  as  so  hopeful  that  they 
think  the  recent  “  Parliament  of  Religions”  was  the 
inauguration  of  the  millennium.  What  enviable 
sleight  of  mind  that  can  turn  everything  into  signs 
of  progress!  Popular  education  and  swift  locomo¬ 
tion  answer  to  the  prediction:  “Many  shall  run  to 
and  fro  in  the  earth,  and  knowledge  shall  be 
increased.”  In  the  triumphs  of  electric  telegraph  and 
telephone,  the  “lightning  cometh  from  the  east  and 
shineth  unto  the  west.”  Irrigation  and  agriculture 
make  “glad  the  wilderness  and  solitary  place,  and 
make  the  desert  to  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose.” 
The  ocean  cables  and  swift  steamships  have  so  joined 
the  continents  that  there  is  “no  more  sea;”  and  in 
peace  societies  and  courts  of  arbitration,  nations 
“learn  war  no  more.”  By  wide  dispersion  of  God’s 
word  and  witnesses,  the  earth  is  ‘ 6  full  of  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.”  In 
the  sympathy  and  unity  of  believers  our  Lord’s 
prayer  is  fulfilled,  that  they  “  all  may  be  one.” 
Rude  and  barbarous  tribes  are  enlightened — “  the 
cow  and  the  bear  feed;  ”  and  in  converted  cannibals, 
the  lion  eats  “  straw  like  the  ox;  ”  the  savages,  rapa¬ 
cious  like  the  wolf,  ferocious  like  the  leopard,  become, 
by  civilization,  the  gentle  lamb  and  harmless  kid. 
Those  who,  with  this  singular  ease,  find  fulfilment  of 
prediction,  have  sometimes  gone  further,  and  sug- 


I 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE. 


425 


gested  that  in  Britain  we  have  the  “  lion,”  and  in 
Russia  the  “  bear,”  and  in  the  young  Republic  beneath 
the  setting  sun,  the  “  little  child”  that  leads  them! 
and  that  China  may  be  the  “red  dragon,”  whose 
tail  draws  after  it  a  third  part  of  the  race,  yet  in 
the  contest  with  Christian  England  “  prevailed 
not!” 

From  all  such  frivolous  methods  of  dealing  with 
the  Scripture  and  with  facts,  we  turn  candidly  to 
ask  what  does  the  New  Testament  encourage  us  to 
hope  for  as  the  outcome  of  our  missionary  work? 

If  we  read  aright,  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  is 
plain.  God’s  present  purpose  is  that  the  gospel  shall 
everywhere  be  preached  for  a  witness  unto  the  na¬ 
tions  and  for  the  outgathering  of  the  Ecclesia;  and 
then  shall  the  end  come,  and  the  Lord  Himself  return 
and  possess  the  kingdom,  and  carry  its  triumphs  to 
completion.  It  is  true  that,  after  nineteen  centuries 
of  Christian  history,  and  at  the  close  of  this  great 
missionary  century,  the  gospel  net  encloses  all  sorts 
of  fish,  both  good  and  bad — swordfish  and  toadfish, 
mansharks  as  well  as  blood-tinged  salmon  and 
delicious  cod — devilfish  as  well  as  angelfish, — it  is 
true  that  the  tares  still  grow  as  vigorously  as  the 
wheat  and  defy  uprooting.  And  yet  this  is  exactly 
what  the  Lord  foretold  as  the  outcome  of  this  dis¬ 
pensation;  and  to  see  this  gives  power  to  the  faint 
and  courage  to  the  desponding.  Instead  of  being 
dismayed  at  the  parallel  progress  of  good  and  evil, 
we  expect  it  and  are  not  disappointed.  Hope  is  not 
crushed,  for  we  have  not  attempted  impossibilities. 
Signs  of  continued  rejection  of  the  message  and 
abounding  iniquity  in  the  world,  or  of  love  waxing 
cold  in  the  Church,  do  not  overwhelm  the  true  mis¬ 
sionary  with  a  sense  of  defeat.  God  is  working  out 
His  plan  just  as  He  forecast  it,  notwithstanding. 
The  devil’s  great  wrath  may  only  be  due  to  the 
shortness  of  his  time;  and  the  ripeness  of  the  tares 
may  only  hint  the  nearness  of  the  harvest. 


426 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


The  prominence  given  to  this  blessed  hope  of 
our  Lord’s  Return,  in  Scripture,  justifies  the  promi¬ 
nence  given  to  it  in  this  treatment  of  the  subject 
of  missions,  for  it  is  vitally  related  to  our  courage 
and  confidence  in  carrying  on  our  work. 

Hope  defeated,  or  even  deferred,  makes  the  heart 
sick,  and  heart-sickness  is  fatal  to  successful  service. 
There  is  a  hope  that  banishes  such  a  malady  and 
in  its  place  gives  ever  new  vigour  and  strength  for 
serving  and  suffering ;  and  that  is  a  hope  founded  on 
a  distinct  promise,  and  actually  fulfilling  before  our 
eyes.  If  we  are  discouraged  or  despairing,  our  need 
and  remedy  is,  perhaps,  a  laying  hold  of  the  hope 
set  before  us  in  the  gospel.  As  the  Scriptures  war¬ 
rant  no  expectation  of  the  world’s  conversion  in  this 
age  of  witness,  so  far  as  we  look  for  such  result  we 
work  on  the  wrong  basis ,  and  will  either  be  dis¬ 
appointed  or  deceived  in  the  outcome. 

The  soldier  who  misconceives  the  object  of  a  cam¬ 
paign,  may  falsely  construe  all  the  movements  of  the 
army.  If  he  thinks  the  whole  force  of  the  foe  is  to  be 
captured,  the  seizure  of  a  few  leading  strongholds 
seems  only  next  to  absolute  defeat.  But,  if  he  knows 
that  this  is  exactly  according  to  orders  from  head¬ 
quarters,  and  that  the  plan  of  his  great  commander  is 
thus  carried  out,  seizing  and  holding  certain  strategic 
points,  and  waiting  for  him  to  arrive  with  reinforce¬ 
ments,  what  would  otherwise  have  seemed  defeat, 
now  becomes  success. 

Does  it  matter  nothing  whether,  in  our  work  of 
missions,  we  are  hoping  for  results  which  are  moving 
on  toward  fruition  or  not?  Let  the  disciple  once 
get  firmly  planted  upon  this  rock  basis,  that  we  are 
sent  forth  not  to  accomplish  a  world’s  conversion, 
but  only  its  evangelization,  and  victory  springs  up 
out  of  defeat.  Hope  that  had  lost  wings,  plumes 
herself  for  a  new  flight,  and  over  the  grave  of  buried 
expectation  rises  with  the  song  of  a  lark.  Satan 
has  gained  no  unforeseen  advantage,  and  even  his 


THE  BLESSED  HOPE. 


427 


movements  are  all  comprehended  in  God’s  wider 
plans.  Every  backward  movement  in  history  is  like 
the  receding  wave,  the  preparation  for  a  forward 
advance  to  a  higher  floodmark. 


X. 


THE  NEW  OUTLOOK. 

There  is  a  promise  and  prophecy  which  all  history  is 
actually  fulfilling.  Watch  the  panorama  of  the  ages  as 
it  unrolls;  see  each  new  scene  in  vivid  colours  fill 
out  that  shadowy  outline  pencilled  by  prophecy.  Ever 
since  Pentecost  flamed  with  its  tongues  of  fire,  God 
has  been  visiting  nation  after  nation,  to  take  out  of 
them  a  people  for  His  name.  At  first  the  door  of 
faith  was  opened  to  the  Jew,  and  the  proselytes,  gath¬ 
ered  from  all  nations,  went  back,  like  the  Ethiopian 
eunuch,  to  witness  to  the  peoples  among  whom  they 
dwelt.  Then  the  door  was  opened  to  the  Samari¬ 
tans,  Syrians,  people  of  Asia  Minor  and  Greece ;  then 
to  those  of  Italy,  Gaul,  Britain,  Germany;  till  in 
our  day  God  successively  flings  wide  the  portals  of 
India  and  Burmah,  Syria  and  Turkey,  Siam  and 
China,  Africa,  Japan,  Corea  and  the  Isles  of  the  Sea; 
yes,  even  the  papal  strongholds,  France,  Italy  and 
Spain. 

And  now  Thibet,  the  shrine  and  throne  of  the 
Grand  Lama,  Buddhism’s  capital,  seems  compelled  to 
open  her  two-leaved  gates.  God  is  doing  with  all 
these  natives  just  as  He  said,  and  in  some  on  a  grand 
scale — “taking  out  of  them  a  people  for  His  name.” 
Witness  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  now  a  Christian  na¬ 
tion;  the  half  million  native  converts  in  India;  the 
scores  of  self-supporting  churches  along  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates;  the  Kho-thah-byu  Memorial  Hall, 
rallying  and  radiating  centre  for  thirty  thousand 
Christian  Karens ;  the  two  thousand  churches  of 
Polynesia;  New  Japan,  with  its  giant  strides  toward 
Christian  civilization;  McAll’s  hundred  gospel  salles 
and  thousands  of  converts  in  atheistic  France ;  Mada¬ 
gascar  becoming  to  Africa  what  England  is  to 

428 


THE  NEW  OUTLOOK . 


429 


Europe;  and  China  turning  converts  into  evan¬ 
gelists. 

Starting  from  Jerusalem,  over  eighteen  and  a  half 
centuries  since,  and  moving  westward,  the  flag  of 
the  cross  has  been  unfurled  successively  in  Antioch, 
Rome,  Alexandria,  and  Constantinople;  borne  from 
the  shores  of  Britain  to  a  New  World  across  the 
Atlantic;  across  that  New  World  to  the  Pacific  and 
the  isles  of  the  sea;  over  the  Pacific  to  Japan  and 
Corea  and  the  various  lands  from  the  Chinese  Sea 
to  the  Arabian  Gulf  and  the  Golden  Horn;  and  thus, 
completing  the  circuit  of  the  globe,  we  once  more 
set  up  the  standard  in  Jerusalem,  the  original  place 
of  the  cross ! 

Meanwhile,  this  girdle  of  missions  is  widening 
into  a  zone,  spreading  northward  toward  the  ice¬ 
bergs  of  Greenland  and  the  snow  castles  of  Siberia, 
and  southward  toward  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and 
the  Land  of  Fire.  We  have  only  to  lengthen  our 
cords  and  strengthen  our  stakes,  and  every  creature 
may  yet  be  reached  with  the  good  tidings  and  hope 
may  reap  the  fruition  of  Scripture  promise.  Then, 
when  from  gentile  nations,  the  last  convert  shall  have 
been  gathered  and  incorporated  into  Christ’s  mys¬ 
tical  body;  when  the  Ecclesia — the  4 4  out-called ” 
ones — shall  be  complete,  and  the  Bride  hath  made 
herself  ready,  the  Bridegroom  shall  return  to  claim 
His  own.  The  fulness  of  the  gentiles  being  come 
in,  the  blindness  of  Israel  shall  be  removed;  through 
eyes  no  longer  veiled,  and  dimmed  only  by  peni¬ 
tential  tears,  they  shall  look  on  Him  whom  they 
pierced  and  wounded  in  the  house  of  His  friends, 
and  so  all  Israel  shall  be  saved  and  the  fallen  and 
ruined  Tabernacle  of  David  be  rebuilt.  Then  shall 
the  residue  of  men  and  all  the  gentiles  seek  after  the 
Lord,  and  see  the  salvation  of  God. 

All  these  motives  and  incentives,  old  and  new, 
unite  to  sweep  over  us  a  deep  conviction  and  per¬ 
suasion,  like  a  mighty  tidal  wave  beneath  whose 


430 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES . 


majestic  movement  all  minor  issues  are  buried.  If 
we  discern  the  signs  of  the  times,  there  is  a  redness 
in  the  evening  sky  which  hints  the  dawn  of  a  glori¬ 
ous  day.  The  present  crisis  of  missions  should  com¬ 
pel  us  to  forget  all  lesser  interests  and  issues,  and 
hasten  to  bear  the  good  news  unto  earth’s  very  ends. 
Labourers  should  be  multiplied,  gifts  increased,  and, 
with  a  new  energy  born  in  us  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
this  greatest  enterprise  of  the  ages  should  be  under¬ 
taken. 

This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  must  first  be  preached 
in  all  the  world  for  a  witness  unto  all  nations  ;  and 
then  shall  the  end  come. 

There  is  a  legitimate  way  of  hastening  toward,  if 
not  of  hastening,  that  end :  promptly  to  occupy  every 
open  door,  and  amply  to  sow  every  open  field.  While 
we  pray,  “Thy  kingdom  come,”  how  far  may  we 
answer  our  own  prayer !  The  whole  creation  groan- 
eth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together,  waiting  for  an 
apathetic  Church  to  do  its  duty.  Within  our  gen¬ 
eration  a  thousand  millions  of  human  beings  will  go 
down  to  the  grave  without  faith  or  hope,  life  or  even 
light;  one  hundred  thousand  die  daily,  while  forty 
millions  of  Protestant  believers,  idle  and  unmoved, 
see  this  wholesale  descent  into  the  darkness  beyond ! 
And  yet  there  are  four  hundred  professed  disciples 
in  Protestant  communions  for  every  one  of  that 
hundred  thousand  that  each  day  pass  into  the  great 
unknown.  How  far-reaching  and  all-powerful  might 
be  the  evangelism  of  these  Protestant  disciples,  if 
once  organized,  economized  and  vitalized  by  the 
spirit  of  missions  and  the  Spirit  of  God ! 

Since  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  through  the  rent  veil  of 
His  flesh  and  the  rent  door  of  His  tomb,  opened  to 
every  believer  the  path  of  life,  nearly  nineteen  cen¬ 
turies  have  fled,  during  which  a  vast  number  of  souls, 
equal  to  twenty  times  the  present  population  of  the 
globe,  have  gone  down  to  the  grave,  ignorant  of 
Christ.  And  during  all  these  centuries,  He  who  is 


THE  NEW  OUTLOOK . 


431 


of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  evil,  has  confronted 
the  woe  and  want  and  wickedness  of  heathenism ! 
Through  all  this  time  God  has  been  preparing  His 
Church  to  enter  these  new  open  doors,  and  the 
Messiah,  who  was  cut  off  without  generation,  has 
been  waiting  to  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  be 
satisfied,  waiting  for  his  bride  to  make  herself  ready 
and  put  on  her  beautiful  attire. 

During  the  last  hundred  years,  since  Carey  led  the 
way,  a  series  of  providential  interpositions  and  gra¬ 
cious  manifestations  that  deserve  to  rank  with  mira¬ 
cles,  have  set  upon  mission  work  the  sanction  and 
seal  of  God.  Colossal  obstacles  have  been  removed 
and  huge  barriers  subsided,  long  locked  gates  been 
burst,  and  grand  triumphs  won.  Why  do  we  hesi¬ 
tate  !  Let  the  hosts  of  the  Lord  rally  to  the  onset. 
The  great  Leader  of  the  host  even  now  sounds  His 
imperial  clarion  along  the  whole  line  of  battle.  Let 
us  obey  the  signal,  boldly  pierce  the  very  centre  of 
the  enemy’s  forces,  turn  their  staggering  wings,  and 
in  the  confidence  of  faith,  move  forward,  a  united 
army,  in  one  overwhelming  charge ! 

Late  one  summer  afternoon,  now  thirty  years  ago, 
a  sudden  rainpour  fell  in  Virginia,  Nevada.  It  was 
very  unexpected,  for  those  rainless  summer  skies 
seldom  yield  even  a  shower.  After  the  rain  ceased, 
a  dense  darkness  drew  its  pall  over  the  whole  sky; 
and  Mount  Davidson’s  vast  eastern  slope  that  over¬ 
looks  the  city,  was  so  enveloped  in  darkness  that 
the  mountain  could  scarcely  be  distinguished  from 
the  cloud  masses  that  surrounded  it. 

A  remarkable  phenomenon  drew  all  eyes  toward 
the  mountain  peak.  Upon  the  lofty  summit  a  little 
tongue  of  golden  flame  moved  strangely  to  and  fro, 
like  some  supernatural  signal.  It  was  very  small 
but  bright,  and  the  more  conspicuous  against  the 
dense,  dark  background  of  storm  cloud.  Most 
strange  of  all,  this  fire  neither  waxed  nor  waned,  but 
simply  burned  on. 


432 


THE  NEW  ACTS  OF.  THE  APOSTLES. 


It  was  at  first  a  mystery ;  but,  in  fact,  it  was  the 
nation’s  flag-,  planted  on  the  mountain’s  peak,  and 
waving  in  the  wind.  Through  a  narrow  rift  of  cloud 
the  rays  of  the  setting  sun  had  found  their  way;  and 
that  flag  of  the  Republic  lay  just  in  the  line  of  their 
direction,  and  so  they  touched  it  alone,  resting  upon 
it,  glorifying,  transfiguring  it.  For  an  hour  that 
burning  banner  held  the  fixed,  fascinated  gaze  of  the 
multitude.  And  it  afterwards  proved  that  the  setting 
sun,  which  thus  gilded  and  glorified  the  star-spangled 
banner,  had  that  same  day  looked  down  on  the  fall 
of  Vicksburg  and  the  victory  at  Gettysburg,  which 
were  the  decisive  turning  points  of  the  war  for  the 
Union. 

Darkness  overspreads  the  earth  and  gross  dark¬ 
ness  the  people.  But  God’s  glory  arises,  and  is  seen 
in  the  work  of  missions.  We  have  but  to  lift  our  eyes 
and  look,  and  we  may  see  that,  on  the  very  summits 
of  heathendom  and  in  the  midst  of  the  death-shade, 
the  heroic  soldiers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  have  planted 
the  banner  of  the  cross,  and  there  it  still  waves,  a 
trophy  of  coming  triumphs.  The  glory  of  God  rests 
upon  all  faithful  testimony  to  His  name,  and  makes  it 
still  a  tongue  of  fire.  While  we  set  up  the  cross  on 
the  high  places  of  the  earth,  and  seem  but  solitary, 
God’s  great  plan  of  battle  comprehends  both  the 
world  and  the  age,  and  takes  in  all  fields  of  conflict 
and  all  faithful  witnesses.  We  may  not  see  it  or 
know  it,  but  elsewhere  decisive  battles  are  taking 
place,  and  strongholds  of  evil  are  giving  way  before 
the  onset  of  God’s  hosts.  In  His  eyes,  which  com¬ 
mand  the  whole  field  and  period  of  conflict,  while  we 
see  only  discouragement  and  defeat,  the  tide  of  bat¬ 
tle  may  be  turning ! 

The  task  on  which  we  entered  in  the  discussion  of 
the  great  theme  is  now  in  a  sense  completed.  No 
one  could  be  more  sensible  than  the  writer  of  these 
pages,  how  little  justice  has  been  done  to  the  marvels 
of  this  missionary  century.  But  our  eyes  must  be 


TILE  NEW  OUTLOOK. 


433 


turned  forward,  rather  than  backward.  What  God 
has  wrought,  with  a  Church  just  waking  from  the 
sleep  of  fifteen  hundred  years,  is  but  a  prophetic  hint 
of  what  He  will  do,  if,  thoroughly  roused  to  holy 
action,  His  people  meet  the  duty  of  the  hour  with 
the  faith,  the  prayer,  the  sacrifice,  the  consecration, 
which  the  crisis  demands. 

The  New  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is,  like  the  old,  an 
unfinished  book.  Other  chapters  wait  to  be  written. 
What  shall  they  record !  God  grant  that  the  unwrit¬ 
ten  history  of  the  years  before  us  may  embrace  far 
greater  marvels  than  have  ever  been  witnessed! 
New  Pentecosts  with  floods  of  blessing,  until,  as 
Malachi  says,  there  be  “  none  left  to  pour  out!” 
New  Apostles,  until  God’s  chosen  heralds  leave 
no  Regions  Beyond  unpenetrated,  and  no  creature 
unreached!  New  visions  and  voices,  until  every 
divine  lesson  is  learned,  and  the  whole  Church  is  in 
living  accord  with  the  Master!  New  converts  and 
martyrs,  until  the  Saviour’s  soul  has  found  its  full 
satisfaction  for  its  travail!  New  signs  and  wonders, 
until  even  unbelievers  confess  the  work  to  be  of  God ! 
New  hopes  and  incentives,  if  indeed,  any  be  needful 
to  inspire  to  ever-increasing  fidelity,  or  possible  to 
enhance  the  grandeur  of  existing  motives! 

But  all  this  depends  on  the  manifested  Presence  of 
the  Redeemer,  in  the  power  of  that  Holy  Spirit, 
whose  holy  ministries  made  luminous  with  glory  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles ! 


INDEX 


Abdul  Medjid,  Sultan,  319. 

Abdul  Messeh,  262. 

Accuracy  in  Science,  125. 

Activity  and  Piety,  390- 
Acts  of  Apostles,  and  Missions, 
4,  156;  Conversions  in,  210; 
Incomplete  Book,  6,  7,9;  Rela¬ 
tion  to  Gospels,  5, 6,  7, 154. 

Acts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  4,  5. 
Adams,  John,  at  Pitcairn  Island, 
249. 

Adaptation  of  the  Gospel,  III, 
179,  288. 

Administration,  Providential,  322; 

Holy  Spirit’s,  202. 

Advent,  The  Second,  11,  414. 
Africa,  105,  123 ;  Missions  in,  267. 
Africaner,  219. 

Agabus,  Prophecy  of,  202. 

Agnew,  Eliza,  134,  342. 

Aimless  Life,  95. 

Altar  at  Athens,  181. 

America,  Discovery  of,  24. 
American  Bapt.  Missionary  Union, 
106,  340,  368. 

American  Bible  Society,  102. 
American  Board,  C.  F.  M.,  102, 
104,  106,  307. 

American  Slavery,  35. 

Amorites,  Iniquity  of,  19. 
Amusements,  Worldly,  397,  423. 
Anaesthetic*,  41. 

Andover,  Mass.,  102. 


Aneityum,  339,  344. 

Angekoks,  213. 

Angelo,  M.,  3,  107. 

Aniline  dyes,  39. 

Aniwa,  316,  347. 

“Annus  Mirabilis,”  305. 

Answered  Prayers,  352. 

Antioch,  Missionaries  sent  from,  53. 
Apollonius,  107. 

Apollos,  60;  Training  of,  201. 
Apostasy,  Signs  of,  393. 

“  Apostates  of  Anvil,”  etc.,  98. 
Apostles,  The  New,  199. 
Apostolate  of  Women,  133. 
Apostolic  Age,  329 ;  Church,  107. 
Apostolic  Succession,  61,  202. 
Appeal  of  Man’s  Want,  405. 
Appropriation,  Law  of,  29. 

“  Arabian  Nights,  The,”  30. 
Archduchess,  Maria  Dorothea,  363. 
Areopagus,  181. 

Aristotle,  64- 
Armadas,  The,  316. 

Army,  God’s  great,  320. 

Arnold,  Dr.  Thomas,  390. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  351. 

Amot,  F.  S.,  182. 

“Ars  Magna,”  64. 

Art  and  Nature,  206. 

Assimilation  to  Idols,  398. 
Assimilation,  World-wide,  32. 
Associations,  44 ;  (see  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  etc.) 


435 


436 


INDEX. 


Athens,  181. 

Augsburg,  309. 

Augustine,  63. 

Authority  in  service,  412. 

Authority  to  preach,  201. 

Avarice  in  Ministry,  198. 

Avarice,  Power  of,  400. 

Bacheler,  Dr.  O.  R.,  384. 
Balance  of  Power,  32. 

Baldwin,  Rev.  S.  L.,  238. 
Bangweolo  Lake,  246. 

Banner  Bay,  III. 

Banza  Manteke,  16,  273. 
Baptismal  Regeneration,  67. 
Baptist  Churches,  and  Judson,  186. 
Baptist  Missionary  Union  (see 
A.  B.  M.  U.) 

Baptist  Missions,  34 3,  354. 
Barbarism,  31. 

Barnabas,  53. 

Barnum,  Rev.  H.  N.,  346. 
Basutoland,  16. 

Baxter,  Hon.  W.  E.,  261. 

Baxter,  Richard,  73. 

Baxter’s  “  Call,”  73. 

Bayard  Taylor,  72. 

Beatitudes,  Crown  of,  397. 
Bechuanas,  331-2. 

Beck,  John,  214. 

Beecher,  Dr.  Lyman,  351. 

Beirut,  327,  383. 

Believers  as  witnesses,  158. 
Benevolence  and  character,  103, 

389- 

Bengel,  3. 

Bentinck,  Gov.  Wm.,  327. 

Berlin,  Conference  at,  34. 

Bernard,  Sir  Chas.,  342. 


Berridge,  John,  25. 

Bethel  Church,  India,  239. 

Bible,  as  Evangelist,  249 ;  God’s 
Book,  3,  12,  241,  284;  Criticism 
of,  393 ;  Distribution  of,  24, 104 ; 
Study  of,  324;  Translations  of,  72, 

79>  95)  99)  io7)  ll9>  214, 
257)  268,  338,  339;  Treasures 
of,  80,  107,  241. 

Bible  Societies,  104. 

Bickersteth,  Sara,  253. 

Binckley,  Rev.  S.  L.,  236. 
Biography,  Key  of  History,  52. 
Birth  Hours  of  History,  20,  391. 
Bishops  in  Early  Church,  198. 
Bismarck,  406. 

Black,  Rev.  Dr.,  363. 

Blackbume,  Archbishop,  41 1. 
Blackfeet  Indians,  231,  234. 
Blantyre,  Scotland,  123. 
Blessedness  of  giving,  396. 
Boardman,  Rev.  G.  D.,  17,  224. 
Body  and  Spirit,  192. 

Boehnisch,  Fred.,  213. 

Bolivia,  Missions  in,  113. 

Bonar,  Rev.  Andrew,  363. 
Boniface,  222. 

Botany,  403. 

Boughton,  Dr.  Gabriel,  384. 

“  Bounty,”  Mutineers  of  the,  250. 
Bowen,  Rev.  Geo.,  41 1. 

Brahman  Apostle,  238. 
Brahmanism,  176,  260. 

Brahmans  and  Gov.  Bentinck,  327. 
Brainerd,  David,  73. 

Brazil,  Emperor  of,  409. 

Breckling,  76. 

Breecks,  The,  31 1. 

Britain  and  Slavery,  35. 


INDEX. 


437 


Brooks,  Rev.  Phillips,  404. 
Brougham,  Lord,  132. 

Brown,  Rev.  A.  G.,  109. 
Buckingham  Canal,  327. 
Buda-Pesth,  363-4. 

Buddhism  in  Practice,  337. 
Buddhist  and  Neesima,  243. 
Buddhist  Temples,  379. 

Bunker,  Rev.  A.,  31 1. 

Bunyan,  John,  21,  96. 

Burial  Rites  in  Africa,  335. 
Burial  of  slave-relics,  Jamaica, 
265-6. 

“  Buried  ”  at  Stanhope,  41 1. 
Burke,  Edmund,  391. 

Burma,  1 7,  105,  136,  222,  340, 

343* 

Bums,  Rev.  W.  C.,  309,  361. 
Bums,  Robert,  178. 

Butler,  Bishop,  41 1. 

Button,  Jemmy,  113. 

Cairo,  Palms  near,  206. 

Calabar  Missions,  268. 

Calcutta,  94 ;  Review,  132  j  Univer¬ 
sity  of,  132. 

Call  to  Work,  106,  152. 

Calling  of  Apostles,  etc.,  199. 
Calling,  Every  work  a,  201. 

Calvin,  John,  21. 

Cambridge  University,  370. 
Cameroons,  The,  268. 

1 

Camp  meeting  at  Hilo,  280 
Canaan,  Possessing,  29. 
Cannibalism,  31,  235,  257-8,  331, 
342. 

Canning,  George,  132. 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  408. 
Capron,  Mrs.  S.  B.,  135. 


Carey,  William,  21,  24-5,  28,  30, 

46,  73,  75-6,  90,  94,  102,  105, 
1 1 6,  124,  129,  263,  327,  352, 
354-5,  406. 

Carlyle,  Thos.,  51. 

Caste,  176-7,  263-4. 

Catallactics,  32. 

Catherine  of  Sienna,  220. 
Ceremonialism,  163. 

Cesarea,  Pentecost  at,  15. 

Ceylon,  342. 

Chalmers,  Rev.  Thos.,  130. 
“Chapters,  The  New,”  3-10. 
Character,  Force  of,  95,  144. 
Charles,  Mrs.,  127, 

Chelczicky,  86. 

Children,  Training  of,  403. 

China,  98;  and  Education,  31,  33; 
Famine  in,  320 ;  Missions  in,  69, 
143.  342,  361,  387.  407  ;  Inland 
Mission,  143  ;  Persecution  in,  36  ; 
Rebellion  in,  310;  “View  of,” 
by  Morrison,  1 00. 

Chinese,  Civilization,  19,  20;  Char¬ 
acter,  235  ;  Dictionary,  1 00  ; 
Grammar,  100 ;  Tongue,  99; 
Choirs,  198. 

Christ,  and  the  Paraclete,  6,  12; 
Incarnation  of,  1 1 ;  Love  for 
Scripture,  3;  Promise  of,  156; 
Second  coming  of,  11,  414. 
Christian  Nations,  Influence  of,  91. 
Christian  Religion,  unique,  337. 
Christian  VI.,  84. 

Christlieb,  Prof.  Theo.,  84,  329. 
Chulalangkom,  183,  320. 

Chunder  Sen,  262. 

Church  Missionary  Society,  254, 

369- 


438 


INDEX . 


Church,  Mission  of  the,  108;  type 
of  the,  173. 

Church  Life,  Conditions  of,  400* 
Civilization,  and  missions,  32. 
Civilization,  World- wide,  31,  32. 
Civilization,  Rottenness  of,  424. 
Clark,  Rev.  F.  E.,  169. 

Clarkson  and  Slavery,  35. 

Clergy  and  Laity,  162. 

Clericalism,  308. 

Climax  in  oratory,  131. 

Clough,  Rev.  J.  E.,  17,  326, 

368. 

Coan,  Rev.  Titus,  279,  321,  348. 
Coincidences,  Law  of,  301. 
Coincidences,  Proof  from,  301, 
366. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  144,  359. 

College,  “  Fort  William,”  95. 
College,  Malacca,  100. 

Colonization  Society,  102,  105, 
Columbian  Exposition,  34. 
Communication,  World-wide,  29. 
Communities  Transformed,  249. 
Community  of  Goods,  155* 
Compass,  The,  24. 

Conformity  to  the  World,  423. 
Confucius,  31,  33. 

Congo,  Pentecost  on,  273. 
Conscience,  Liberty  of,  36  ;  Loyalty 
to,  126;  Misguided,  327-8. 
Consecration,  197. 

Constantine,  23,  166. 
Constantinople,  Fall  of,  24. 
Contagious  Diseases  Act,  358. 
Conversion,  Conscious,  107;  Miracle 
of,  206,  210;  of  World,  422. 
Converts,  Witness  of,  163. 

Convex  Mirror,  132. 


Cook,  Rev.  Jos.,  33. 

Cook’s  Voyages,  94,  97,  116,  327. 
Co-operative  Unions,  44. 

Corea,  382. 

Cornelius,  Conversion  of,  15. 
Coronation  at  Madagascar,  228-9. 
Cosmogony,  Hindu,  31. 

“  Court  Language,”  33. 

Crater,  Kilauea,  221. 

Cree  Indians,  230 ;  Bible  of,  234. 
Crises,  of  Church  Life,  392 ;  of 
Missions,  327,  407. 

Criticism,  The  Higher,  60. 

Critics  of  Missions,  351. 

Croly,  Rev.  Dr.,  20. 

Crucifixion,  Story  of,  278. 

“  Crusade,  The  Modem,  ”  365- 
Crusades,  63. 

Cushman,  Clara,  134. 

Custom,  162. 

Cuvier,  31. 

Cyprian,  162. 

Daguerre,  41. 

Dante,  375. 

Dark  Ages,  The,  61. 

Darwin  and  Patagonia,  ill,  114 
179. 

David,  Christian,  86. 

Davis,  Dr.,  324. 

Deans,  Jeanie,  402. 

Death  of  Livingstone,  243. 
Deccan,  The,  238. 

Defeat,  410. 

Delay,  Danger  of,  407. 

Delay,  “  No  Longer,”  22. 

Delhi,  379. 

Denmark,  78 ;  Missions  in,  344. 
Desire  of  all  nations,  20. 


INDEX. 


439 


Despard,  Secretary,  113. 

Diaconate,  Institution  of,  159. 
Diana,  Worship  of,  210,  330. 
Diaspora,  The,  87, 

Dick’s  “  Future  State,”  124. 
Diffusion,  172. 

Dingaan,  Chief,  1 1 3. 

Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  $2. 
Discipline  of  giving,  400. 
Dispersion  of  witnesses,  172. 
Disruption,  Scotch  Church,  129. 
Distribution  of  labor,  159,  160. 
Diversity  of  sphere,  1 44. 

“  Divine  Contemplation,”  65. 
Division  of  labor,  159,  160. 

Dober,  84,  87-8. 

Dorcas,  201. 

Doshisha,  The,  17,  242,  325. 
Drury,  Robt.,  227. 

Dry  den,  305. 

Duff,  Rev.  Alex.,  78,  80,  105,  128* 
330- 

“  Duff  Lectureship,”  132. 

Dufferin,  Lord,  333. 

Duncan,  Rabbi,  364. 

Duncan,  William,  17,  71,  252,333, 

346- 

East  India  Co.,  ioo,  260. 

Eboe,  King  of,  335. 

Eccentricity,  no. 

Ecclesia,  422,  425,  429. 

Economy  of  Energy,  18. 
Edinburgh  Medical  Miss.  Soc.,  384. 
Education,  31 ;  in  India,  330;  of 
Ceylonese  girls,  342  ;  of  Persian 
girls,  138;  of  Woman,  342  (see 
Woman). 

Edwardes,  Sir  Herbert,  261. 


Edwards,  Jonathan,  25,  73,  352. 
Egede,  Hans,  81,  213. 

Eighteenth  Century,  25. 

Eimeo,  116. 

Electricity,  30,  40,  194. 

Electric  Telegraph,  40. 

Eliot,  John,  70,  252. 

Eloquence,  Dr.  Duff’s,  1 30- 1. 
Emancipation,  in  Jamaica,  265. 
Emancipation,  World-wide,  34-5. 
Embalming  Livingstone,  244. 

End  of  the  age,  430. 

Enduement  from  on  High,  276, 
360. 

English  Language,  33. 

Enterprise,  45. 

Enthusiasm  for  Humanity,  180. 
Ephesus,  Pentecost  in,  16,  210, 
329-30. 

Epic,  The  Unwritten,  246. 

Equality  of  right,  162. 

Erromanga,  1 15. 

Erwin,  Jos.,  113. 

Eskimo,  converts,  84 ;  work  among, 
214. 

Eunuch  of  Ethiopia,  153,  156. 
Euphrates,  Churches  on,  17;  Col¬ 
lege,  345  ;  Pentecost  on,  17. 

“  Evangelical  Magazine,  The,” 
381. 

Evangelism,  Revival  of,  25. 
Evangelization  of  World,  161,  41 1. 
Evans,  Rev.  Jas.,  23 1. 

Everett,  Edward,  72. 

Evidence,  Laws  of,  301. 
Exclusiveness,  Jewish,  150,  173. 
Expectation  realized,  421. 
Experience,  New  Lessons  of,  389. 
Exploration,  World  wide,  28. 


440 


INDEX . 


Explosives,  42. 

Extortions  in  India,  264. 

FACT  and  form  of  miracle,  298. 
Facts,  Power  of,  122. 

“  Failure  of  Missions,”  351. 

Faith,  359. 

Falconer,  Hon.  Keith,  63,  no. 
Family  Life,  402. 

Famine,  Mission  of,  320,  368. 
“Fannie  Forester,”  136. 

Feeding  Five  Thousand,  295. 
Fees,  Ministerial,  198. 

Fell,  Capt.,  Murder  of,  114. 

Fever,  in  Africa,  124. 

Field,  Vision  of  the,  171. 

Field  of  Witness,  1 7 1. 

Fiji  Cannibals,  257,  258,  342. 

Fiji  Islands,  16,  257,  258. 

Fijians,  Missions  among,  342. 
Filled  with  the  Spirit,  15. 

Finney,  Chas.  G.,  280;  on  Endue- 
ment,  14;  on  Prayer,  361. 
Fiske,  Fidelia,  17,  138. 

Fiske,  Rev.  Pliny,  138. 

Fitness  of  Times,  19. 

Flag  of  U.  S.  on  Mt.  Davidson, 
432. 

Flaxman,  Monument  to  Schwartz 

by,  93- 

Fletcher,  of  Madeley,  25. 

Flint,  Dr.,  on  the  Gospel,  III, 
288. 

Foochow,  236. 

Force  of  Witness,  15 1. 

Forces  of  Nature,  193;  Obedience 
to,  193. 

Forces,  Natural,  Laws  of,  193. 
Forgiveness  of  Injuries,  234. 


Formosa,  17,  286,  346. 

Fort  Simpson,  333. 

France,  War  in,  66. 

Francke,  A.  PL,  85,  89,  90. 
Frankenstein,  43. 

Free  Church  of  Scotland,  129, 

339- 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  406;  on  Living¬ 
stone,  124;  on  India,  261. 
Frivolity  in  Interpreting  Scripture, 
425. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  on  Sacrifice,  401. 
Fulfilment  of  Prophecy,  13. 

Fuller,  Andrew,  97. 

Fuller,  Rev.  j.  j.,265, 267. 

Fulness  of  Times,  19. 

Gaboon  River  Missions,  16. 
Galvanism,  Size  and  number  of 
cells,  402. 

Gambetta,  308. 

Gambia,  Lord,  310. 

Ganga  Dhar,  262. 

Gardiner,  Capt  Allen,  IIO,  161. 
Garfield,  President,  178. 

Geddie,  Dr.  John,  31 1,  344. 
General  Association  of  Mass., 
102. 

Generation,  Our  Own,  41 1  ;  Work 
of  each,  4. 

George  IV.  and  Morrison,  100. 
Germany,  Missions  in,  344. 

Getting  and  Giving,  397. 
Gettysburg,  432. 

Ghost,  The,  and  Cuvier,  31. 

Giants,  5 1. 

Gifts,  Miraculous,  382. 

“  Give  to  him  that  asketh  thee,” 
276, 277. 


INDEX . 


441 


Giving,  Incentives  to,  395. 

Giving,  to  Missions,  202. 

Gladstone,  Wm.  E.  38,  406. 
Glasgow,  University  of,  100. 

Glory  of  God,  390. 

Gobat,  Bishop,  134;  Mrs.  Maria, 

134- 

God,  Ideas  of,  In  Banza  Manteke, 
275. 

Godivari  River,  1 41. 

“  God-thaab,”  84. 

Going  to  Field,  202. 

Gonzalez,  Missionary  to  Bolivia, 

XI3- 

Gordon,  Gen.,  127  ;  Rev.  Dr.  A.  J., 
279- 

Gospel,  Power  of,  157  ;  Preaching 
the,  276. 

Gospels,  The  Four,  Compared,  5- 
Gossner,  Pastor,  303. 

Goujon,  243. 

Gould,  Dr.,  387. 

Grace,  Miracles  of,  329. 

Grammar,  Indian,  73. 

Grant,  Anthony,  410. 

Grant,  Dr.,  17,383. 

Grant,  Mrs.  Judith,  134, 138. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  406. 

Gratitude,  No  word  for,  216. 
Graybell,  Mary,  134. 

Great  Britain,  380. 

Greatness,  Unrecognized,  142. 
Greaves,  Mrs.,  332. 

Greek,  Civilization,  19,  337  ;  Lan¬ 
guage,  20. 

Greenland,  Language  of,  216; 
Missions  in,  81,  214 ;  Women  in, 
216. 

Griffin,  President,  102. 


Grimshaw,  Wm.,  25. 

Grundler,  80. 

Guiana,  Dutch,  74. 

Gulick,  Rev.  O.  H.,  323. 

Habit,  Power  of,  141. 

Hackleton,  95. 

Hair,  Offerings  of,  380. 

Hall,  102. 

Hallam,  Arthur,  3. 

Hamburg,  343. 

Hanover,  Missions  in,  120. 

Hardy,  Alpheus,  241,  323. 
Harmony  withj  God,  410. 

Harms,  Louis,  1 19. 

Harms,  Theodore,  133. 

Harpoot,  345. 

Harvests  of  Missions,  212. 

Hatti  Sherif,  and  Humayoun,  319. 
Hawaiian  Islands,  16,  104,  220; 
Pentecost  at,  279,  306,  347-8, 
390- 

Haweis,  Dr.,  367. 

Haystack  at  Williamstown,  104. 
Hayti,  267. 

Healing,  Gift  of,  382. 

Heber,  Bishop,  89,  127. 

Heine,  181. 

Henry  V.,  406. 

Hepburn,  Dr.,  338. 

Hercules  and  Serpents,  52. 
Heredity,  123,  130,  141. 
Hermannsburgh,  1 1 9 ;  Missionary 
Soc.,  122. 

Hermhut,  85. 

Hervey,  Jas.,  25. 

Higo,  School  at,  286. 

Hill,  Rowland,  25  ;  Sir.  Wm., 
261. 


442 


INDEX. 


Hilo,  Pentecost  at,  279,  347-8. 
Hinderer,  Anna,  134. 

Hindu,  Cosmogony,  31. 

Hindu  Women,  389. 

Historian,  Undevout,  21,  26. 
History,  God  in,  21,  26,  326. 
History,  Compensations  of,  1 19. 
History,  Prophecy  and,  21. 
Hobson,  Benj.,  384. 

Hogbrook,  Sierra  Leone,  251. 
Hok-chiang,  Persecution  at,  237. 
Holyoke,  Mass.,  138;  Persia,  138. 
Holy  Spirit,  Attitude  toward,  II, 
392;  Dispensation  of,  II,  155, 
197;  in  Acts  of  Apostles,  157, 
196;  Relation  to  Christ,  6;  to 
Church,  196. 

Hong  Kong,  100. 

Hon-gwan-ji,  Temples  of,  379. 
Hooker,  Thos.,  70,  73. 

Hope,  Abandonment  of,  375. 
Hope,  Power  of,  375,  414. 

“  Hope,  The  Blessed,”  414. 
Hospital,  St.  John’s,  327. 
Hottentots,  218;  Education  of, 
32. 

Hough,  Mr.,  in  Burma,  223. 
Howard,  John,  202. 

Hoxton,  Morrison,  at,  98. 
Humboldt,  Baron  von,  72. 
Humour,  127. 

Hundred-fold  increase,  212. 
Hungary,  Missions  in,  363. 

Hunt,  John,  254,  257-8. 

Hunt,  Robert,  113. 

Huntingdon,  Countess  of,  1 1 6. 
Huss,  John,  21,  86. 

Hyder  Ali,  89,  92. 

Hyderabad,  239. 


Identity  with  God,  412. 

Idolatry,  Hatred  of,  225. 

Idols,  Assimilation  to,  398. 
Ignatius,  144. 

Ilala,  244. 

Incarnation  of  Christ,  11,  19,  22. 
Incentives,  New,  344. 

India,  British  Rule  in,  327 ; 
Civilization  of,  20 ;  Converts 
in,  37  ;  Education  in,  28 ;  Hor¬ 
rors,  etc.,  removed  in,  263  ; 
Famine  in,  320;  Intolerance  in, 
264;  Missions  in,  77,  89,  135, 

260,  33 L  348,  3^7;  New  Route 
to,  24.  ; 

Indians,  N.  A.,  230. 

Individual  Rights,  35. 
Individualism,  165. 

Industry  and  Genius,  124. 
Infanticide,  31,  258,  328,  350. 
Inglis,  Rev.  Dr.,  Influence  on  Dr. 
Duff,  130. 

Inglis,  Dr.  John,  of  Aneityum,  339. 
Inouye,  Count,  325. 

“  Inquiry,”  Carey’s,  etc.,  75,  97. 
Inquisition  in  Spain,  185. 

Insane,  Treatment  of,  40. 

Instincts,  Universal,  182. 

Intellect,  Freedom  of,  35. 
Intelligence,  36. 

Intercession  of  Christ,  356. 
Inventions,  Rapidity  of,  39 ;  The¬ 
ology  of,  18,  24,  38. 

Isolation,  45. 

JALNA,  239. 

Jamaica,  Slavery  in,  35,  265 ; 
Emancipation  in,  265  ;  Missions 
in,  266. 


INDEX . 


443 


James,  King,  178. 

Janes,  Capt.,  at  Higo,  287,  324. 
Japan,  68,  115,  240,  307,  379; 
Missions  in,  240,  322,  338 ; 
History  of,  324. 

Jericho,  Fall  of,  295,  307. 

Jesuits,  Order  of,  66. 

Jewett,  Rev.  Lyman,  17,  368. 
Jews,  Missions  for,  363. 

Joan  of  Arc,  81,  127. 

Joel,  Prophecy  of,  12,  13. 

John,  Gospel  of,  iii:  16,  368. 

John,  Rev.  Griffith,  360. 

Johnson,  W.  A.  B.,  16,  88,  251, 
346. 

Jones,  Mrs.  Dorothy,  134. 

Jonson,  Ben.,  178. 

Judaism,  Decay  of,  20. 

Judgment,  Times  of,  19;  Miracles 
of,  157- 

Judgments,  The  New,  318. 

Judson,  Rev.  Adoniram,  17,  73, 
103,  105,  136,  186,  340;  Mrs. 
Emily  C.,  136 ;  Mrs.  Ann  H., 
136. 

Juggemath,  31,  263,  335. 
Juju'Rites,  335. 

Justification  by  Faith,  21. 

Kajarnak,  Conversion  of,  213, 
215- 

Kali,  328. 

Kant,  Emmanuel,  375. 
Kanwealoha,  284. 

Kapaio  and  Dr.  Geddie,  31 1. 
Kapiolani,  220. 

Karens,  17,  222,  223,  227,  31 1, 
34L  343. 

Keith-Falconer,  63. 


Keith,  Rev.  Dr.,  363. 

Kerr,  Dr.,  383. 

Kettering,  76,  94,  97,  354. 
Kho-thah-byu,  222  ;  Memorial 
Hall,  227,  341. 

Kilauea,  Crater  of,  221. 

Kingdom  of  Heaven,  Parables  of, 

23, 

Kingsley,  Canon,  179. 

Knibb,  Rev.  Wm.,  265. 

Knill,  Richard,  81. 

Knox,  John,  21. 

Krishna  Chundra  Pal,  33 1; 

Kyoto,  242,  379;  Education  at, 
324- 

Labourers,  Location  of,  326. 
Laity  and  Clergy,  163. 

Languages,  Reduced  to  Writing, 
18 ;  Foreign,  Studied  at  Home, 
18. 

Law,  Preaching  the,  275. 
Lawrence,  Lord  John,  261. 
Leang-Afa,  98. 

Lefevre,  107. 

Legiac,  Chief,  333,  334. 

Legions,  Theban,  and  Thundering, 
370- 

Leicester,  94. 

Lessons,  The  New,  141. 

Lessons  of  the  Acts,  158. 

Leyden,  Siege  of,  315. 

Li  Hung  Chang,  406. 

Lieber  and  Catallactics,  32. 
Liembe,  Lake,  246. 

Light,  Laws  of,  1 94. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  410. 

Ling  Ching  Ting,  235. 

Litany  of  Moravians,  88. 


444 


INDEX. 


Literature,  Christian,  119. 

Little  Things,  126. 

Livingstone,  David,  72,  1 23,  1 29, 
153,  243;  Services  to  Science, 
124,  125;  Grave  at  Westmin- 
ster,  128,  310,  315,  326. 

Locusts,  Plague  of,  320. 

London  Missionary  Society,  98, 

367- 

“  Lone  Star  Mission,”  368. 

Loom  of  God,  35. 

Lowell,  J.  Russell,  398. 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  66. 

Lucknow,  Medical  Missions  in, 

387- 

Luke,  Gospel  of,  154. 

Lullius,  Raimundus,  63,  95. 

Luther,  Martin,  22,  24,  74 ;  at 
Augsburg,  309. 

Lutheran  Reformation,  41 1. 
Lycidas,  351. 

Lyon,  Mary,  88. 

Mabotsa,  247. 

Macaulay  on  Gov.  Bentinck,  328. 
MacDougal,  Rev.  Geo.,  231. 
Macedonia,  Call  to,  183. 

Mackay  in  Formosa,  17,  288, 

346. 

Mackay  of  Uganda,  17,  383. 
Mackenzie,  Robert,  39,  40. 
Maclaren,  Rev.  Alex.,  D.D.,  109, 

158. 

Madagascar,  16,  179,  227. 
Madison,  James,  99. 

“  Magic  Skin,”  96. 

Magnetism,  Laws  of,  194. 
Maha-Mong-Ivut,  319. 

Mahmud,  Sultan,  319. 


Main,  Rev.  Jas.,  235. 

Malacca,  College  at,  100. 
Malagasy,  179,  227. 

Malden,  Mass.,  no. 

Malietoa,  Chief,  118,  137. 
Mammon,  394. 

Mangs,  238. 

Maoris,  256. 

Map  of  World,  Carey’s,  97. 
MarYohanan,  138. 

Maraes,  Destruction  of,  118. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  370. 

Marquesas  Islands,  16. 

Marsden,  Samuel,  354. 

Martyn,  Henry,  263,  331. 

Martyrs,  of  Uganda,  285  ;  of  Japan, 
287. 

Maruans,  Conversion  of,  118. 
Marvels  of  God  in  Missions,  Forms 
of,  17. 

Mary  of  Magdala,  133. 
Maskepetoom,  230. 

Mason,  Rev.  Francis,  223,  224. 
Matter  vs.  Force,  193. 

Matthew  and  Prophecy,  13. 

“  Matthew,”  Livingstone’s  Atten¬ 
dant,  244. 

Matthias,  Choice  of,  58. 

Mauch  Chunk,  406. 

Maurice,  370. 

Maximian,  Emperor,  370. 

McAll,  R.  W.,  307,  326,  345. 
McCheyne,  Rev.  R.  M.,  363. 
McFarlane,  Rev.  S.,  235. 

McLeod,  Sir  Donald,  261. 
McLeod,  Norman,  41 1. 

Mechanics,  God’s  Use  of,  144. 
Medical  Missions,  32,  382,  384. 
Medical  Science,  32. 


INDEX . 


445 


Melanesia,  287. 

Memorial  Tablet,  Dr.  Judson’s,  1 10. 
Meriah  Groves,  31. 

Metlakahtla,  17,71,  333,  346. 
Micawber,  105. 

Micronesia,  16,  390;  Missions  to, 
286. 

Mikani,  Calabar  Chief,  270. 

Mills,  Sam.  J.,  102,  254. 

Milne,  Richard,  99. 

Milton,  John,  35 1. 

Ministry  and  Church  Life,  287. 
Ministry  of  the  Spirit,  196. 
Miracles,  206;  The  New,  293  ; 

Physical  and  Spiritual,  299. 
Miracles  of  Grace,  329. 

Miser,  398. 

Missionaries,  Proportion  of,  87. 
Missionaries,  Native,  286. 
Missionary  Boards,  etc.,  46. 
Missionary  Income,  379. 
Missionary  Literature,  380. 
Missions,  The  Problems  of,  4. 
Missions,  Service  rendered  to  Lit¬ 
erature  by,  18. 

Missions  and  Invention,  38. 
Mitchell,  Rev.  J.  Murray,  141, 
238. 

Model  State,  252. 

Moffat,  Robert,  16,  118,  219,  309. 
Moffat,  Mrs.  Robert,  331,  134. 
Moffat’s  Appeal  for  Africa,  124. 
Mohammedanism,  182,  380. 
Mohammedans,  Missions  to,  63. 
Money,  Compensation  by,  198. 
Money,  Ministry  of,  396;  Prayer 
for,  369. 

Money  and  Missions,  1 23. 

Monod,  Adolph,  390. 


Monotheism,  182. 

Moody,  D.  L.,  366. 

Moors  of  Africa,  371. 

Moravian  Brotherhood,  200,  215, 
310;  Principles  of,  88. 

Moravian  Missions,  84,  86,  379. 
Morpeth,  98. 

Morrison,  Robt.,  98. 

Morshead,  Capt.,  Letters  of,  1 13. 
Motives,  The  New,  373. 

Motley,  J.  Lothrop,  36. 

Moulton,  94,  97. 

Moung-Khway,  223. 

Mount  Hermon,  Mass.,  366,  411. 
Mtesa,  183,  184. 

Muir,  Sir  Wm.,  261. 

Mullens,  Mrs.,  134,  135. 

Mullens,  Rev.  Joseph,  135. 

Muller,  Max,  261. 

Murders  in  India,  263,  264. 

Namaqualand,  220. 

“  Name  of  Christ,”  in  Prayer, 

356. 

Nanumaga,  16,  348,  349. 

Natick,  72. 

Native  ministry,  72. 

Natural  aids  to  Missions,  1 8. 
Neesima,  Rev.  Joseph  H.,  17,  240, 
323. 

Neglect  of  opportunity,  408. 
Neighbourhood  of  Nations,  30. 
Nesbit,  Mr.,  in  India,  240. 
Nestorian  Women,  138. 

Nettleton,  Rev.  A.,  280. 

Nevada,  Rain  shower  in,  431. 
Newell,  Mr.,  102. 

New  Hebrides,  130,  348. 

New  Hermhut,  213. 


446 


INDEX . 


New  Zealand,  16;  Converts  at, 
254. 

Nile,  Missions  in  valley  of,  1 6. 
Nineteenth  Century  Progress,  38-9, 
305- 

Nitschmann,  Mr.,  84. 

Nonantum,  71. 

Northbrook,  Earl  of,  261. 
Northamptons,  The  two,  25. 
Norwegian  sailors,  82. 

Nott,  Rev.  Mr.,  102. 

Nottingham,  Carey  at,  97. 

Numbers,  Stress  on,  158,  21 1. 

Nyassaland,  315. 

% 

Oahu,  306. 

Oak,  The  Sacred,  222. 

Oarsmen  in  Ancient  Galleys,  412. 
Obedience,  to  God,  143 ;  to 
“  Laws  of  Nature,”  194. 
Oblivion  of  self,  198. 

Obookiah,  104,  306. 

Obstacles  removed,  377. 

“  Occupy  till  I  come,”  414. 
O’Connell,  Daniel,  32. 

Oncken,  J.  G.,  343. 

“  One  Blood,  Made  of,”  180. 
Ongole,  17,  345,  348,  368. 
Oodooville,  Ceylon,  342. 

“  Open  Doors,”  26,  28,  185,  377* 
Opium  smoker,  Conversion  of, 
236. 

Opoa,  1 1 7. 

Opportunity,  22,  26,  27,  409. 
Opportunity,  New,  305. 

Oratory,  Rules  of,  131 ;  Dr. 
Duff’s,  131. 

“  Order  of  grain  of  mustard  seed,” 
•  84;  The  new,  377. 


Organization,  World-wide,  43. 

Oro,  War-God,  117-118. 

Oroomiah,  Revival  at,  1 39. 
Orthodoxy,  Tests  of,  392-3. 
Outlook,  The  new,  428. 

Owen,  John,  10,  11,  392. 

Parable  of  Sower,  212. 

Paraclete,  The,  196. 

Parentage,  Pious,  142. 

Parker,  Peter,  M.D.,  384. 
Parliament  of  Religions,  337, 
424- 

Parricide,  258. 

Passover,  171. 

Paton,  Rev.  J.  G.,  309,  316, 
347- 

Patteson,  Bishop,  287. 

Paul,  at  Antioch,  53;  at  Athens, 
1 81 ;  at  Corinth,  187;  at  Rome, 
7;  at  Troas,  183;  compared 
with  Dr.  Duff,  129. 

Peace,  Prevalence  of,  23,  33. 

“  Peacock  Throne,”  379. 

Pele,  221 ;  Priest  of,  282. 

Pelew  Islands,  314. 

Pentecost,  The  modem,  16,  139, 
196;  Place  in  history,  1 1. 
Periods  of  Missions,  378. 

Perry,  Commodore,  322. 

Perry,  Sir  Erskine,  240. 
Persecution  for  religious  opinion, 
36,  155;  in  early  Church,  155, 
172. 

Persia,  Civilization  in,  19;  Mis¬ 
sions  in,  138  ;  Woman  in, 

335- 

Perversions  of  Prophecy,  424. 
Pesth,  Hungary,  363. 


INDEX. 


447 


Peter,  Simon,  53,  58,  150,  153, 
173,  174,  180. 

Peter,  the  Hermit,  65,  129,  165. 
Pew  rents,  198. 

Pharisees  rebuked,  21. 
Philadelphia,  Meeting  at,  239. 
Philip  in  Samaria,  15. 

Phillips,  the  catechist,  Murder  of, 
1 14. 

Phillips,  Rev.  James,  265. 
Phonograph,  41. 

Pietists,  The,  84. 

“  Pilgrim’s  Progress,”  339. 

Pioneer  Work,  101,  106. 

Pioneers  of  Missions,  54-5,  60. 
Pitcairn  Islands,  249. 

Plan  of  God,  21,  26,  143. 

Plating  a  dead  child,  392. 

Plitt,  77. 

Plodding,  Power  of,  124. 
Plutschau,  Henry,  77,  79. 

“  Pneumatologia,”  Owen’s,  11,  392. 
Polynesia,  Converts  in,  340. 

Pomare  II.,  183. 

Post,  Rev.  Geo.  E.,  M.D.,  327, 

383- 

Postal  Union,  30. 

Potters,  the  Divine  and  Human,  59. 
Powell,  Thomas,  16,  348. 

Power  to  witness,  189. 

Praise  of  men,  127. 

Prayer,  for  missions,  56,  122,  200, 
352>  356  ;  of  Saints,  356-7. 
Prayer-book,  250. 

Preparations,  for  Events,  23 ;  New, 
305  ;  World-wide,  38. 
Prepositions  in  Scripture,  14. 
Presbyterian  Alliance,  239. 
Preservations,  Divine,  309. 


Princeton,  N.  J.,  366. 

Printing  Press,  24. 

Prizes  of  World,  127. 

Progress,  Comparative,  38-9 
Progress,  Deceptive,  424. 

Prophecy,  and  History,  19;  and 
Providence,  22. 

Protestantism  and  Balance  of 
Power,  32. 

Protestant  Church  Members,  378. 
Providence,  Faith  in,  126;  and 
Prophecy,  22 ;  Miracles  of,  309 
Prussia,  32,  380. 

Puna,  Pentecost  at,  282,  321. 

Raiatea,  1 18,  137,  350. 

Raikes,  Robt.,  166. 

Raimund  Lull,  131. 

Rajah  of  Tanjore,  89,  91. 
Ranavalona,  I.,  228 ;  II.,  227. 
Rankin,  Matilda,  134. 

Rapid  Results,  340. 

Raratonga,  116. 

Rasoherina,  229. 

Rationalism,  Leaven  of,  393. 
Ra-Undreundu,  the  Fijian,  259. 
Read,  Hamilton,  331. 

Reflex  Influence,  of  Missions,  389 ; 
of  Giving,  402. 

Reformation,  The  great,  21,  23, 
206  ;  in  Philosophy,  24. 
Reformed  Church,  164. 
Regeneration,  206. 

Regents’  Town,  252. 

Relations  of  Christian  Nations, 
380. 

Reporters  and  Dr.  Duff,  131, 
132- 

Retrenchment  in  Missions,  186. 


448 


INDEX . 


“  Return,  The  Lord’s,”  414. 
Responsibility,  26. 

Results  of  Missions,  158,  204, 
421. 

Revelation,  Chap,  viii.,  356. 
Revenge,  in  Indian  character,  232, 
234. 

Revival  of  Learning,  24. 

Richards,  Henry,  273. 

Ripon,  Bishop  of,  8. 

Robinson  Crusoe,  241. 

Romaine,  William,  25. 

Roman  Civilization,  19,  337. 
Roman  Roads,  20. 

Rome  and  Protestant  Chapels,  185. 
Rowlands,  Daniel,  25. 

Rum,  and  Missions,  408. 

Russia  and  Serfs,  35. 

Ryland,  John,  25, 96 ;  Jno.,  Jr.,  353. 

Sabbath  in  South  Seas,  117. 
Sacrifice,  for  Christ,  128,  197;  of 
Self,  197;  Human,  264. 
Sacrilege,  204. 

Sadducees  rebuked,  21. 

St.  Genevieve,  Death  of,  359. 
Saker,  Alfred,  268. 

Salvation,  A  full,  393. 

“  Salvation  Army,”  169. 

Samaria,  Pentecost  in,  15. 
Samaritans  and  Jews,  175. 

Samoa,  115,  351. 

Samson,  34. 

Sanctuary,  defined,  197. 
Sandemann,  Mrs.  Stewart,  310. 
Sandwich  Islands,  220,  348. 

Saphir,  Adolph,  362,  364. 

Savaii,  118. 

Savonarola,  21. 


Sceptre  of  the  Race,  380. 

Schmidt,  and  Africa,  127. 

Schofher,  M.,  378. 

Schrieber,  Dr.,  380. 

Schultz,  90. 

Schwartz,  Chr.  F.,  80,  81,  89, 
105,  130,  162,  262. 

Science, ^Livingstone’s  service  to. 
124. 

Scion  and  growth,  403. 

Scott,  Thos.,  and  Carey,  97. 
Scripture  study,  167. 

Sears,  Dr.  Barnas,  343. 

Secularism  in  churches,  397. 
Seelye,  Rev.  Julius,  33. 

Self-denial,  of  Carey,  96 ;  of  Jud- 
son,  109. 

Selfishness,  389. 

Self-oblivion,  127,389. 

Selwyn,  Bishop,  256. 

Separation  among  Disciples,  162. 
Separation  unto  service,  54,  199. 
Serampore,  94. 

Serfdom,  34. 

Serfojee,  and  Schwartz,  92. 
Serfojee,  Epitaph  by,  92. 

Service,  a  duty,  164;  reward  of, 
416 ;  sphere  of,  412. 

“  Seventy  years,”  22. 

Sex,  Law  of,  388. 

Shelley’s  heart,  87. 

Shen  Mouktee,  224. 

Sheshadrai,  Rev.  N.,  238,  262,  329. 
Sheshadrai,  Shripat,  240. 

Shidiak,  Asaad,  329. 

Siam,  Needs  of,  185  ;  Crisis  in,  318. 
Siamese  and  education,  31. 

Sierra  Leone,  16,  251,  346. 

“  Signs  of  Times,”  21. 


INDEX . 


449 


Sixteenth  Century,  305. 

Slavery,  34,  128;  Abolition  of, 
358 ;  in  India,  264. 

Slave-ships,  Refuse  of,  251. 

Sleep,  390. 

Smith,  Dr.  Eli,  140. 

Smith,  Dr.  Geo.,  66. 

Smith,  Dr.  S.  F.,  368. 

Smith,  Sydney,  25,  98,  354. 
Smyley,  Capt.,  113. 

Social  Evils,  Isaac  Taylor  on,  336. 
Society  for  Propagation  of  Gospel, 
72. 

Society  for  Promoting  Christian 
Knowledge,  92. 

Society  of  Jesus,  75. 

Solander,  Dr ,  390. 

South  Seas,  Missions  in,  331,  340, 

367- 

Southern  Cross,  etc.,  255. 

Sower,  Parable  of,  212. 

Spain  and  Inquisition,  36. 

Spanish  Conquest,  91. 
Spectroscope,  41. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  144. 

Spener,  Philip  J.,  84. 

'  Spirit  of  God,  Power  of,  194;  and 
Missionaries,  57. 

Stack,  Matthew,  213. 

Stanley,  H.  M.,  184,  273. 

State,  Ideal,  178. 

Statistics,  204. 

Steam  Engine,  24. 

Steam  Transportation,  30. 
Stewardship,  204,  395-6. 

Stewart,  Chaplain,  C.  S.,  221. 
Storrow,  Rev.  Ed.,  310. 

Subsidence  of  barriers,  300,  30 7. 
Success  and  failure,  204. 


Suicide,  264. 

Sulivan,  Admiral,  114. 
Sunday-schools,  166. 

Supernatural  Results,  355. 

Supply  of  Workers,  199. 

Susi,  and  Livingstone,  243. 

Sutcliffe,  Jno.,  353. 

Suttee,  92,  263,  327. 

Sychar,  Woman  of,  133. 

Syria,  Medical  Missions  in,  387 ; 
Missions  in,  1 30  ;  Woman  in, 

387- 

Tabitha,  201. 

Tabu  Customs,  177. 

Tahiti,  16,  340,  367. 

Tahua,  118. 

Taljajee,  Rajah,  92. 

Talleyrand,  406. 

Tamil  Tongue,  78,  79,  89. 

Tanjore,  Kingdom  of,  79,  89; 

Rajah  of,  89,  91,  262. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  72. 

Taylor,  Isaac,  336. 

Taylor,  Rev.  J.  Hudson,  143,  312, 

3*4.  329»  362.  407. 

Taylor,  James  Brainerd,  73. 
Telegraph,  30,  40. 

Telugus,  345,  348. 

Temple,  Sir  Richard,  261. 
Thackeray,  141. 

“  Thaddeus,”  Brig,  306. 
Thakombau,  King  of  Fijians,  260. 
Thales,  174. 

Theban  Legion,  370. 

Theebau,  King,  343. 

Theology  of  Inventions,  18,  24. 
Theological  Schools,  God’s,  60. 
Thibet,  88,  428. 


450 


INDEX . 


Tholuck’s  Motto,  85. 

Thomas,  Missionary  to  India,  94. 
Thompson,  Sir  Rivers,  262. 

Thor  and  the  Oak,  222. 
Thucydides,  76. 

Thugs  in  India,  327. 

“  Thundering  Legion,”  370. 

Tierra  del  Fuego,  no. 

Tinnevelly,  348. 

Tithes,  341,  395, 

Tomatoa  at  Opoa,  117. 

Tongarsuk,  213. 

Tongues,  Gift  of,  159,  382. 
Tongues,  in  testimony,  159. 
Toplady,  William,  25. 

Torment,  Voluntary  and  Invol¬ 
untary,  in  India,  264. 
Torringford,  102. 

Training  School  for  Missionaries, 
120,  201. 

Tranquebar,  89. 

Travancore,  Prince  of,  262. 
Trichinopoly,  89,  92. 

Tsai-a-Ko,  Chinese  convert,  101. 
Tsetse  Fly,  124. 

Tsimean  Indians,  334. 

Tuahine,  340. 

Tulsi  Paul,  262. 

Turkey,  Crisis  in,  318;  Missions 
in,  341,  345- 

Tyndall,  on  Crystals,  254. 

UGALLA,  Congo  native,  408. 
Uganda,  17;  Persecutions  at,  285. 

,  “Unitas  Fratrum,”  85,  200;  Coat 
,  of  Arms  of,  85. 

.  United  For.  Miss.  Soc.,  102. 
United  States,  380,  391 ;  Debt  to 
Dr.  Duff,  130. 


“  Unknown  God,”  1 81. 

Unselfish  Spirit,  197,  399;  in 

giving,  399  ;  in  serving,  419. 
Unworldliness,  418. 

Upham,  Francis  W.,  36,  299. 
Upheaval,  Moral,  301. 

Ursinus,  Dr.  John  H.,  75,  77. 

Vaagen,  81. 

Vaudois,  86. 

*  • 

Vedas,  Teaching  of,  31. 

Venn,  Henry,  25. 

Verani,  258. 

Vicksburg,  432. 

Vidal,  Bishop,  254. 

Visions  and  Voices,  The  New,  145, 
146. 

Viwa,  257,  258. 

Voice,  The  Leading,  146. 

Von  Welz,  Justinian,  74. 

Waban,  Chief,  70. 

Wainwright,  Jacob,  245. 

Wakefield,  Rebecca,  135. 
Waldenses,  86. 

Waldo,  107. 

Walker,  of  Truro,  35. 

War,  406. 

“  War,  The  Holy,”  371. 
Watchwords,  41 1 ;  of  Missions,  19, 
306. 

Webster,  Daniel,  391. 

“  Week  of  Prayer,”  306. 
Weitbrecht,  Mrs.,  387. 

Wesley,  Chas.,  25,  87,  357. 
Wesley,  John,  25,  87;  Self-denial 
of,  96;  at  Oxford,  357. 
Wesleyan  Missions,  230. 
Westminster  Abbey,  247. 


INDEX. 


451 


Whangaroa  Harbour,  255. 
Whately,  Mary,  134. 

Wheeler,  C.  H.,  17,  341. 
Whitefield,  George,  25,  87,  357. 
Wigram,  Sec.  F.  E.,  370.  % 

Wilberforce,  Wm.,  35. 

Wilder,  Rev.  R.  G.,  366. 

Wilks,  Capt.,  260. 

Wilks,  Matthew,  367. 

Williams,  John,  8,  115,282,288, 

344,  349,  35°,  367  J  Murder  of, 
119. 

Williams,  Mrs.  John,  134,  137- 
Williams,  Sir  Monier  Monier,  261. 
Williamstown,  102,  104. 
Will-power,  125. 

Wilson,  John,  D.D.,  and  India, 
238, 263. 

Wilson,  Capt.  James,  116. 

Wistale,  Chief,  Patagonia,  113. 
Witch  Doctors,  275. 

Witness,  among  all  nations,  25  ; 
Work  of,  149,  152,  202  ;  Field 
of,  149,  150;  Power  of,  149, 
151,  189. 

“  Witness,  The  Indian,”  265. 

“  Witnesses  and  Workers,”  The 
new,  285. 

Witnessing  Church,  153. 

Wodrow,  R.,  363. 

Woman,  Apostolate  of,  133  ;  and 
Christ,  133,  140,358;  in  Mis¬ 
sions,  133,  134,  140;  Degrada¬ 
tion  of,  33,  330,  334;  Educa¬ 
tion  of,  330,  342. 


Women  in  Prayer,  358,  359. 
Women,  New  Activity  of,  386. 
Wonders,  The  Seven,  28. 
Worcester,  Marquis  of,  305. 

Work,  Hard,  124. 

Workers,  Prayer  for,  369. 
Workmen,  Raised  up  by  God, 
58. 

World  Empires,  45. 

World,  Weaning  from,  418. 
World-wide  Enterprise,  45. 

World  wide  Wonders,  48. 

World’s  Conference,  1888,  383. 
Wyclif,  John  de,  21,  107. 

Xavier,  66. 

Yoruba  Country,  134. 

Young  Men,  Uprising,  365. 

Young  Men’s  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion,  144,  166. 

Young  People’s  Soc.  of  Christian 
Endeavor,  44,  168. 

Young  Women’s  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion,  168. 

Zanzibar,  244. 

Zenanas,  Labor  in,  342,  387 ; 

Opening  of,  330. 

Ziegenbalg,  Barth.,  70,  77,  90. 
Zinzendorf,  64,  70,  76,  84,  94. 
Zoroaster,  240. 

Zulu  Land,  Missions  in,  16, 


112. 


THE  MODERN  MISSION 

CENTURY 

VIEWED  AS  A  CYCLE 
OF  DIVINE  WORKING 


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SHALL  WE  CONTINUE  IN  SIN? 


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